When Simplicity is Lost
by Whenfithitstheshan67
Summary: Chiron arranges this Top Secret Strike Team to preform tasks to give Camp Half-Blood a leg up in the second Titan War. The team consists of Jon Luke "Big Luke" Richards, Brandon Collins and David Yang. What happens when one member is working for the enemy? Rated M for blood and gore and other jolly stuff like that. I have a feeling that the sequels will be better.
1. Chapter 1

_**Author's Note:**__** So, don't hold your breath or anything. Feel free to comment. Let me know what you think! Even if it's just "Liked it" or "You could do better" or "I hate your guts, you gravy-sucking pig!". I want your feedback!**_

Brandon

I finished up at the Lava Rock Wall and started to make my way to the arena. I was able to add three more near-death experiences to my running total of seventeen. I like to count my near-death experiences because it keeps me in reality. The fact that I could die at any given time is on my mind constantly.

I spend all my summer called Camp Half-Blood where I learn to fight monsters and survive. You see, my mom is Athena, goddess of wisdom. And my dad is mortal and lives in Portland, Oregon. I'm what you might call a demigod, half human, half Greek god. Me and other kids like me come to this place to train.

The first day of hand-to-hand combat class was unlike any other. For one thing, our teacher was unlike any other. He was a Marine. His name was Jon Luke but everybody at camp just called him "Big Luke" because he was six-four and two-hundred, forty pounds of all out muscle. Big Luke was probably in his early twenties. He was the only one at camp that used a firearm instead of a sword or a knife. Everywhere he went he had his custom built 1911 strapped to his right thigh in a hard plastic holster. The handgun had a flat black slide and a stainless steel frame with dark wood grips. He wore desert style combat boots with the bottoms of a pair of digital desert uniform pants tucked into the tops. He wore an orange camp T-shirt that was tucked into the pants. He had a military style haircut under a patrol cap that matched his pants.

He was standing in the middle of the arena with his feet shoulder width apart and his hands grasped behind his back. The whole class was lined up, shoulder to shoulder, waiting to get started. He spent the first, what felt like thirty minutes, of class just standing there staring at us, probably sizing us up. He looked my direction more than a couple of times.

"Today, we start the long process of teaching you ladies how to defend yourselves when you are stripped of your weapon in combat," He spoke in a thick Cajun accent. I guess it should be noted that not all of us were girls, but he didn't seem to care. "For the duration of the course you will train on each other and my automatons, if you break one of my automatons you will get both a cherry flavored lolly pop and a ten mile run. You won't need any weapons of any kind. Now to show you one of the first things you will learn," he pointed straight at me and motioned for me come to over. He held out his hand and I shook it. His grip nearly broke my hand. "What's your name?"

"Brandon Collins, son of Athena," I answered.

"Where you from?" he asked

"Portland, Oregon," I answered.

"Well, all right then," He squinted slightly as if looking into my soul. Then he turned to the class and spoke. "What we will be learning today is how to take a punch," He turned back to me and ever so blatantly said, "Punch me in the face".

I thought that was a rather odd request. So, I balled my right fist and took my best swing. Bad idea. Big Luke stepped into my punch, grabbing my arm at the wrist and pushing it upward. Meanwhile, he was stepping behind my heels; putting his tree trunk of an arm around my chest and slamming me on my back. He lent me a hand and I stood up.

He demonstrated the maneuver again but this time explaining everything he did as he slammed me on my back again.

"See, nothing to it! Now everyone will practice on an automaton."

The moment he said it, a small army of about thirty-five to forty human-like automatons marched into the arena. I coughed twice and got to my feet. Each was the size of a average man, about six feet tall. They were real basic with Terminator like features with red eyes and metallic plates for bone structure. The army broke formation and stood in front of a student in line, one even walked up to me.

"Soldiers, introduce yourselves!" the Marine shouted and all of the robots extended his hand. No human moved for a second, and then I reached for my automaton's hand and shook it. Again, the grip nearly crippled me. The automaton nodded his head slightly without saying a word.

We all began practicing the throw on the robots. I couldn't see why he thought we would break them. They were so robust that even after being thrown on the ground dozens of times, they never received even a scratch. At the end of the hour, we shook the automaton's hands and went our separate ways. All of us except me.

"Brandon, stay here a moment would you?" Did I have a choice? Probably not. I stayed back and talked to Big Luke. "So with this Percy Jackson showing up and Luke Castellan's betrayal, Chiron sees war in the future. That being said he knows that I have extensive combat experience and a lot of connections that could potentially help us out a lot in this war," He paused for a moment, questioning his next words. "Look I'm just going to say it, he wants me to put together a Strike Team. We are to go on super secret operations, I mean seriously on the DL here. For the kind of ops he's got for me, I know it takes at least three people. I need a Engineer, someone who can think something up to solve a problem under stress. You being a son of Athena and seeing how you managed the robot, I think you would be a good fit. That's if you can be trusted and you think your up to the task."

This took me off guard a bit.

"Can I think about it?" I replied. I had so many more questions and he might have expected an answer right then and there.

"What do you need to know?" he asked back, as if reading my mind.

"Well for starters, unlike you, I don't have any combat experience, nor do I have any training besides what I get at camp-"

"When do we get to the question?" he interrupted me.

"I was getting to that. Where would I'd get trained? I'm just a kid from Oregon."

"I would train you, both in and out of class. I'm a little rusty myself so it would be good for me too. I want to give you something," he stepped over to a table in one corner of the arena and picked up two of four books and brought them over. He handed them to me and I looked at the titles, one was the _Art of War _by Sun Tzu and a copy of the Army Sapper handbook. "I want you to read those. Learn everything you can from them."

"Hang on, you said that these operations require three people. Who's the third?" I asked.

"He should be here any second now. I need a sniper, someone who can see and shoot a long ways away. This particular kid I've been watching from a far, outside the archery range. He's pretty good with a bow, I'd like to see him with my M40."

"I thought you only had the pistol?"

"How many rednecks you know that only have one gun?" he replied with a smile and with that long southern drawl of his.

Big Luke was real arrogant. I never liked that much. He also struck me as a person that always kept to his word, if he said he would do something, he was going to do it.

"Oh, here he comes now," I turned to see a short kid who looked about sixteen.

He was probably five foot, six inches and around one-hundred forty pounds, Asian in ethnicity. He had this agitated look on his face and he was walking towards us like he had a bone to pick with Big Luke. His eyes never came my way.

"What do you think your problem is?" he confronted Big Luke. If this kid was planning on fighting Big Luke, I would know, he'd be in for a ride.

"How do you figure?" replied Big Luke calmly.

"You were watching me at the archery range last week, through a rifle scope!" Apparently, this was a problem with the little guy. I couldn't blame him, I would want to know when someone had a gun trained on me too.

"I don't have a pair of binoculars with that kind of range," calmly replied Big Luke. "Good eye by the way. I'd like to say that I was pretty well camouflaged and at a range of two-hundred yards you could see me, just like that," he snapped his fingers just before he said "just like that". "Allow me to introduce myself, I'm Jon Luke but everyone just calls me Big Luke," he extended his hand.

"Name's David, everybody calls me David. I've seen you around here and there," he grabbed his hand and nearly fell over from Big Luke's grip. David seemed to have calmed down a bit. "Now, why were you watching me?"

"I was seeing how good of a shot you were. And by judging how you did at the archery range, I'd say your pretty good."

"No, the best," David corrected. _Great, more arrogance._

"Either way, I want to see how good you are with a real weapon," he walked back over to his table. I hadn't noticed it before but there was an object under a blanket underneath the table. Big Luke knelt down on one knee and pulled off the cloth to reveal a bolt action rifle. The rifle had a pistol grip style sniper stock with both adjustable cheek piece and recoil pad. On the forend was a black bi-pod. The stock was a flat dark green (Olive Drab?). The barrel was plenty thicker than a standard hunting barrel. Up top, he had a full-length sniper scope. Big Luke picked up the rifle and a silencer that were also under the blanket. He walked back over.

"This arena is about seventy-five to one-hundred yards long. I want you to put three rounds in that target," he pointed to a large berm made from a pile of red dirt in one corner of the arena. In front of the berm was a post with a two foot square board nailed to it. On the board was a target. "Think you can do it? Right now the scope is sighted in for about three times that distance so you will need to aim down a few mil-dots, but for someone who is 'The Best' it should be no problem."

"Won't people here the shot?" asked David.

"That's what the silencer is for, and judging by the way the arena is designed, the sound will dissipate rather quickly," I explained. "One of the girls in my cabin is really into architecture. The rest of us never hear the end of it."

David shrugged and took the rifle. He worked the bolt once to see if it was loaded, one round spilled out of the action. "You keep this thing loaded?"

"In the words on John Wayne, 'a gun that ain't loaded and cocked ain't good for nothin'," a direct quote from the movie _True Grit_. David picked up the spilled round and slipped it back in the gun.

We took our position on the opposite side of the target and David took aim. We were prone on the ground facing the target, David in the middle, Big Luke on the left, I was on the right. I saw David's back rise and fall as he was breathing. In through the nose, out from the mouth. He took one more breath and as he exhaled, he slowly pulled the trigger. The gun went off and even with the silencer, the shot was extremely loud. Yet I had no ringing in my ears afterward. None of us had any kind of hearing protection on.

"Low and left," relayed David "Two dots low and one dot left."

"So, adjust your sight picture," Instructed Big Luke.

David worked the bolt and by doing so, loaded another round into the chamber. He took aim again, started breathing slow again, pulled the trigger again. The same bang rang from the M40, different point of impact. I could tell by the initial punch of the paper when the round made contact. This time closer to the center, but it was really hard to tell from where I was.

"Dead center," relayed David.

"Do it again," ordered Big Luke.

For a third time, David fired the rifle. However, this time, the paper never moved. I had thought he missed.

"Dead center, same exact spot," said David.

"No way. Let me see that rifle," exclaimed Big Luke.

Big Luke took the rifle and aimed down the scope. Smoke was still flowing out of the barrel as he held it still.

"Well, the dirt around the target is undisturbed. I'm still not convinced, though," Big Luke stood up and opened the bolt. Letting the casing spill out of the chamber and set the rifle back down, action open. He began walking down to the target when David and I stood up and ran up behind him.

All three of us peered at the dirt directly behind the target board. Two salad bowel sized craters lay in the dirt. One was slightly bigger as if it was struck twice.

"Well, the available evidence would suggest that I hit that in the same exact spot," David concluded.

"I guess so. I got a question for you," said Big Luke.

"What question?" asked David.

"You want a job? It doesn't pay but it might save all of our lives as we know them."

"What would I be doing?" so many questions, not enough answers.

"You know this Percy Jackson character? Well, with him being the son of the Sea God and all, Chiron is expecting war. Since I'm the only one that's really been in a full out war, he's gotten me a list of tasks that he needs accomplished. I figure I need a small team for most of them."

"What kind of tasks?"

"Luke Castellan has his army spread out in little hollers around the country. Our job is to find and take them out. That and whatever else he has for us," explained Big Luke.

"Would we be killing demigods?" David asked.

I never really thought of having to face another demigod. Demigods don't die like monsters do. It's much, much more terrifying and heart breaking.

"For the most part it will be monsters. We may run into a few merc's along the way, along with those who have turned. Your going to have to start preparing yourselves for killing another human being. It won't be easy and it's a really hard thing to get used to," answered Big Luke. He handed David the other two books from his table, another copy of the _Art of War _by Sun Tzu and a book about being a sniper.

"What was it like in the Marines? What's your story?" I asked Big Luke.

I didn't really know the big guy, I had my first impressions and what I had heard but I didn't know what he was all about as a person. I didn't even know who his godly parent was.

"Maybe I'll tell you guys someday. It isn't happy and I'm still waiting for a happy ending," he replied.

"Like a Hero's Death?" Everyone at camp let that cling to the back of their minds, how they were going to die. The most feared was a Hero's Death, going out fighting. Dieing in violence was never good for anybody.

"I hope not. But if that's how it's going to go down, I don't want any unfinished business before I go," he replied.

On that happy note, the dinner bell rang and the new found team headed to the dining pavilion.


	2. Chapter 2

Big Luke

I spent the evening cleaning the M40 and thinking about what I had done. I had just asked two guys to possibly give up their lives for the good of the world. I thought back to when I first joined the Marine Corps.

I popped into the recruitment office two miles from my step-dad's house down south in Louisiana after what happened. I yanked the door open of the recruitment office just as the recruiter was locking the door for the night.

"I need to join the military, now," I said, gasping for breath.

"You know, being demanding is my job," the recruiter said, who I later learned was called Tom.

We sat down at the desk and I filled out the paperwork. The whole office was one big room with posters of the Marines from the American Revolution to World War II to modern day Afghanistan. Towards the door, there were a line of chairs and a number ticket machine. Their were six desks all together, three on the right, three on the left. All the lights were off except the one above us and one in the front.

Tom was in his late forties, his hair was graying and his face was weathered. He wore a pair of combat boots and camouflaged pants much like I wear now only his were in their woodland MARPAT configuration with lots of browns and greens. He wore a black long-sleeve button up shirt that was all triple stitched and certainly not something you would find at Macy's. He also had a chain necklace with a bullet threaded on to it. He used his computer quietly. Rather than give me a huge spiel on "Why I should join the Marine Corps". He saw that I was desperate, which I was. Fifteen years in that house was fifteen years too many.

I had finished up the paperwork and began asking questions about heading off to basic training. Tom told me about the ASVAB test I would have to take along with the physical test.

I was going to be a Marine, just like my great grandfather who had fought in World War II and stormed the beach on D-day. I was in no hurry to go back to that house so I asked Tom if he would be willing to stay for a couple hours and keep me company. He agreed. By this time it was nine at night and he probably wanted to go home to see his family. The seventeen year old me never considered it, which turned out to be a big mistake. He began questioning me about my family and why I wanted to join the Marine Corps, and I told him my story. It turned out that Tom was a Marine Scout Sniper with several years experience, so many he lost count. That's where he got the necklace. Then he grew tired of it and became a recruiter.

While I was sitting on my bunk, cleaning the M40, I thought about Tom._ Did he realize what he was doing? Did he ever think about how many people he recruited would come back alive and how many would come back in caskets?_

I pressed a secret button under the bed and my little compartment opened in the wall, exposing my M16 and a couple spare mags on a chest rack. I set the M40 behind them and closed the compartment. I un-clicked my holster and laid it with my 1911 under the bed. I changed cloths and laid on the bed and fell asleep.

I had a dream of the start of a bank robbery. This was different than any normal bank robbery, this one had taken place at night. Most bank robbers will operate in the day time because it is easier to get in the bank, you can walk right in. If you go at night the doors are locked and they are marked by an alarm system so if you broke the glass, you would set off the alarm bringing the police. In this dream there were two armed guards and six robbers. I woke up with a start. It was time to go to work.

We had traveled all the way to Detroit, Michigan in a matter of seconds by means of shadow travel. My crew that night was made up of two snake-woman and three other demigods. One of which was Luke Castellan himself who had insisted to go on this operation. He was not pleased with the last job that we did. So, he insisted that he come with us on this one.

The plan was like any other: cut the power to the ventilation system but not the alarms or the lights inside as to not alert the two guards. While in the Marine Corps, I specialized in close quarter tactics and warfare, that's why Luke had wanted me to lead the heists. The war wasn't free and they needed funds to fuel the "movement" as I called it, and robbing banks was how we did it.

We had shadow jumped right on the "X" which is military lingo for dropping directly on to the target. We were on the roof of a Bank of America that was directly connected to two, two story buildings on either side of it. The Bank of America itself was a single story. The Michigan air that night felt slightly colder than it should of been. I looked around to my view of Detroit. I could faintly see tall buildings, downtown. The Bank of America must have been placed towards the outskirts of town.

I was a little nervous, it wasn't because I was about to infiltrate a bank and commit yet another act of larceny. I had done that and been all over the news for it. I was a kind of rock star in a sense. I had led teams all over the country pulling off the heists. I had even made it to the national news, "The Traveling Thief" they called me. From each report that came out, the one thing that they all had in common was a guy of my height, build and of course, my accent. Being a southern boy, witnesses always seemed to remember my southern drawl.

I sent the two other demigods, both sons of Ares, to the two story building to the right to cut the power, I prayed to whoever was listening that they wouldn't screw it up. As we waited I checked over my gear, I was dressed in all black, even gloves. I had a small backpack with a roll of duct-tape (most useful tool in the world), a single flashbang, four ski-masks, one for each human, the snake-woman had their own. A flashbang is a type of nonlethal grenade that, when activated, emits a bright flash and a loud bang, disorientating anyone around it. I also had some of my breaching equipment: pry tool, screw drivers, a small hand portable butane torch, and a single kicker charge for any doors that got in our way. I had swapped out my 1911 for a Heckler and Koch HK45C with a suppressor. I heard Brandon call it a silencer which is not the correct terminology, silencer would imply complete silence which this does not do. It was loaded up with standard ammunition, not Celestial Bronze cased.

"You ready?" Luke asked me.

"Oh, ready as I'll ever be," I never enjoyed steeling, even if it was our only source of income. _I mean come on, you can't fuel a war by selling lemonade, can you?_

"You don't sound confident. Are you afraid of what might happen to you if you don't come through?" I knew what he was getting at and believe me, it wasn't good.

"There are always risks, especially when the only intel I've got came to me in a dream," I knew I was taking a shot at him but I didn't care. I didn't like Luke, he was a bad leader and a jerk. At that point, he wasn't fit to lead a rat to a block of cheese. He was spineless compared to some of the men I've fought under. He was confident but he was not courageous.

"You better watch your tone," Did I mention he wasn't intimidating either?

"You remember the plan?" I asked him.

"Of course I do!" he exclaimed.

"SHHHHHH!" the three other life forms on the roof told him.

I went to the ventilation gate on the roof. The plan was to get in through the ventilation system, hence cutting the power to it. all three building's power was controlled from the building to the right. After getting in, we would position our selves directly over each guard. We would drop the flashbang at their feet and take them hostage.

I had finished unscrewing the vent and set it to the side. I motioned for everyone to stack up behind me. Luke was right behind me the whole way in. He was also shaking and uncomfortable.

When we got into position, we ran into a problem. The two guards were too far apart for the flashbang to be very effective. One was behind the counter and the other was near the front sliding glass door. Both guards were sitting down and they didn't look like they were moving anytime soon.

It was three in the morning, I was tired and I didn't want to be there. I felt so flustered because Luke just HAD to come along and I just HAD to only bring ONE flashbang. I had a few options however: we could retreat a few steps and I could drop to the floor in the hallway by the coffee room and the safe behind the first guard. I would walk up and knock him out while the rest drop in on the other. However, I didn't like the idea of Luke Castellan dropping in on an innocent security guard, he might have killed him. The other option was to retreat and try again on another night with the right equipment, but I was all ready on thin ice with Luke so I decided to risk it.

There were four of us in the ventilation ducts, the two snake-woman, Luke Castellan and I, and we all backed up as quietly as we could. We left the two other demigods on the roof as scouts. I left their ski-masks on the roof for when they returned from cutting the power. I tried to charade the new plan as best I could to the crew. I split off in another tunnel over the hallway where I lifted the grate to create an opening. I dangled my feet over the edge.

"Just another day at the office," I told my self.

I held my breath and took the plunge. As I landed, I bent my knees to absorb the shock and I exhaled. Not the quietest landing I ever had but it didn't seem to phase the guard any.

He was seated in a office chair behind the counter facing away from me and he was reading a magazine, _Motor Trend_. I had just started to creep up when I heard the flashbang go off and I saw the flash. Then I heard three sets of feet hit the ground. Caution flew out the window as I charged the guy behind the desk. He had stood up when I tackled him from behind. He became bent over the counter and I flipped him over and stuck a solid right punch to his face. He was knocked out instantly and I sat him back in the chair.

When I looked up, I was shocked at what I saw. Luke with his sword "Backbiter" (half Celestial Bronze and half tempered steel) impaled in the other guards chest. That was exactly what I didn't want to happen.

"What did you do?" I cried.

"I took him out," Luke said with a calm face as he pulled his sword out of the guys chest.

"I wanted you to knock him out! Not kill him! I thought I made that clear before we even shadow jumped," I had completely forgot about being mad for the terrible timing.

"These mortals will die anyway once Kronos takes over," as if that was some kind of excuse.

"No! The plan was to get in, get the dough, and get out. Not this! Now we are going to be all over the news and wanted for murder!" By this time, the guy I knocked out was starting to wake up.

"Keep your masks on!" I commanded to the crew.

I pulled the duct tape out of my bag and started taping up our hostage. I ran tape all the way around his chest and the chair, I taped his wrists and his mouth. As he woke up, I saw his gaze move towards his now dead co-worker who was now laying face-down in a pool of his blood. I had stripped him of his gun and his belt and his shoes. I could see in his eyes the terror that we had installed in him.

"Do you know where you are? Nod yes or no," I demanded. You need a coherent hostage to be of any use. He nodded yes.

"Do you know the combo to the safe? Nod yes or no," he shook his head no. "Damn. I'm going to have to blow the door off the safe," I informed the crew. I looked back at my hostage, "Do you know how to open the front doors with out setting off the alarm? Nod yes or no," He nodded yes.

I looked at him strait in the eyes, "If you cooperate, you will get out of this alive, I promise," I glared at Luke then I began taking my boot off.

Houdini always had a trick up his sleeve, mine was in my boots. I had made C4 plastic explosive insoles for them in case of any emergency. C4 is so stable you can shoot it and it wont blow up. It is also very malleable, so it makes for great insoles. Think Play-do, but with deadly intentions.

I opened up my backpack and took out the kicker charge. There was enough C4 explosive on it already for the safe but I was not entirely convinced. I wadded up my insoles and molded them onto the kicker charge, then I put my boots back on. I was no bomb expert, but I was a master of overkill.

The safe was huge, about the size of a shed you would see outside a Lowe's or Home Depot, and they managed to place it at the end of the hallway. I carried the charge over to the door and placed it on. I heard the magnetic strips snap to the metal surface. I held the detonator in my right hand as I ran back and hid behind the wall. Everyone stacked up behind me just like they did on the roof, Luke just behind me, still shaking at the knees.

"Fire in the hole," most people would say that they always wanted to say that, but I had done it plenty in the Marine Corps.

The detonator was about the size of two AA batteries stacked end to end, with a little round red button on the top. I pressed down firmly on the button and waited for the bang... I waited some more for the bang, it never went bang. I sighed, nothing that night was going as planned.

"Why didn't it blow up? You going to go check it out?" Luke asked me.

"You want to go check it? There is an armed bomb down that hallway and I don't know if it's going off in four seconds or four-" BOOM! The bomb went off. "It's open," I said, stating the obvious.

I radioed to the two Ares kids to come down and help unloading the safe. I walked down to the safe and walked inside. There was close to a million dollars in bills and a couple bricks of gold in the safe. I grabbed a cart and rolled it over to Luke. I guess that I rolled it a little too hard so it hit him in the knees. He caught it and glared at me.

"Your welcome," I told him as I stormed out of the now blown up crater of a door.

I walked back over to our hostage.

"How do you open the front doors?" I saw the other Ares kids walked down the hallway as I ripped the duct tape off the guards mouth.

"OW! 1, 4, 6, 3, pound on the number pad by the doors!" He exclaimed, then I laid the duct tape back down on his mouth.

I trusted what he was saying because we all had our masks still on. That meant that we were not planning on killing him. He didn't want to spoil his chances of making it out alive, so he told the truth.

The truth was we didn't need the code, we would take the carts full of cash and shadow jump with them back to the _Princess Andromeda_, Luke's flag ship. No finger prints, no evidence left behind except the blown safe door, what was left of the kicker charge, and the duct tape on the guard. Of course we would leave this guy a story to tell the cops and a dead body, credit of Luke Castellan.

The crew had finished cleaning out the safe of every cent left in it and was now waiting with all the cash in the center of the lobby. I walked over to the spent flashbang and picked it up and set it on one of the carts. I went over to the number pad and punched in every number except the ones the guard told me. I listened, this bank had a silent alarm and a silent alert sent to the cops. Some banks will make a lot of racket when you set in the wrong combo. So, we shadow jumped in silence.

We landed on the deck of the _Princess Andromeda_ and the snake-woman took the cash to a safe we had on board. I began walking to port side where there was a zodiac inflatable boat with another snake-woman inside waiting for me. Just as I climbed on board, Luke caught me by the shoulder. I tuned around.

"I'll let you know when we need you again. What have you learned from Camp Half-Blood?" In case your wondering, I am a spy for Luke's army.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Author's Note:**__** Again, nobody is telling me anything. I really want to know what people are saying. I don't really care about followers or favorites but I would really appreciate some thoughts and opinions from my readers. I know you're out there, I read my stats.**_

David

I had woke up after a good nights sleep. That's what is different between me and most people at camp, I always sleep like a baby. I never get strange nightmares like most people at camp do. I woke up and watched as the rest of the Apollo cabin started to wake up. I was the best shot in the cabin but I really had no desire to lead. I was starving! I could literally eat a horse. I got dressed and grabbed my bow and quiver. I was the only one in my cabin who opted to shoot a compound bow which uses a pulley system rather than using the limbs of the bow to provide a driving force for the arrow.

The whole cabin shoved our way out the door and started walking up to the dining pavilion for breakfast. I caught a glimpse of Big Luke walking with the Hephaestus cabin, which was weird. I had always thought of him as a son of Ares, you know, being a Marine and all. But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. All of his guns were no wear near stock and Brandon was telling me about his automatons that he had. No way a son of Ares could build those.

I had talked with Brandon last night after dinner, we ditched campfire and took a walk to the hill that overlooked the camp. Brandon was a skinny kid with black hair and had a track-star like frame. He had the same stormy gray eyes that every spawn of Athena had, he was the only one that I had ever met with black hair though. it was kept neat and laid down. He was also a couple inches taller than me. We took a seat and started talking about the conversation we had with Big Luke earlier.

"So, what do you think? I mean, you heard what he said, we are probably going to have to fight other demigods," I asked, we both tried to avoid the "K-word" that came out earlier.

"Do we have much choice? He told us how under the radar it had to be. If we say no, would he kill us? How can we trust this guy?" he was really thinking it out.

"I don't think he would kill us, he needs us. He strikes me as a truthful guy," I mentioned.

"He struck me as arrogant, and I don't really like that much," Brandon was a humble guy, he knew his place and this would take him way outside his comfort zone. I, on the other hand, needed some action, I hadn't had a quest since I arrived at camp when I was thirteen. Three years of doing nothing but train for nothing was feeling like a waist of time.

"How many quests have you been on since you got here?" I asked him. He held up his hand with his fingers curled in a circle, Zero.

"But I like that, it feels good to stay out of the spotlight," he was a terrible liar.

I stood up, "You know your wasting your potential. I'm going to tell him yes. I'm in. I'd like to see you there," then I walked away.

Now, I was walking up to Big Luke and was about to tell him that I was in. I broke from my cabin mates and started to walk up along side him when Brandon came up next to me.

"Your right, I am wasting my potential. I was reading Sun Tzu last night before bed and decided I'm in too," he told me, he was honest and he admitted when someone else was right, and I thought that was cool.

We both walked up next to Big Luke and said that we were in. He looked at us and smiled. He looked more tired than he was yesterday. Maybe he just wasn't a morning person.

"Be ready to train because we are going to go hard," that's all he told us.

* * *

Later that day, during our free time, we took a little trip out in the forest. It was hot that summer afternoon and we were well soaked from sweat from a whole day of training. We headed so far into the bush that the we were fifty yards outside of the camp's magical borders. Big Luke lead us to this huge two story building out in the middle of the forest. From the outside it appeared to be constructed of large sheets of plywood. The whole thing was about sixty feet square and twenty feet high. The front door was stained a darker wood than the rest of the building.

Big Luke directed us inside. Just as we walked in through the front door, I noticed a stair case that went up to a set of cat walks, one going all the way around the inside perimeter of the building, and one going across the middle laterally. It was a perfect pattern with the exception of a large platform that ran along the left side. The first floor was a kind of maze of rooms and hallways, a layout like you might find in a house or something. The plywood walls could be removed from the grid of trenches on the floor, so you could create what ever kind of layout you wanted to as long as you had enough plywood. We walked up to the platform only to see three large green containers with lids open exposing some odd shapes under some more dark green tarps.

"Well boys, welcome to the Kill House," Big Luke said, spreading his arms wide.

"What do we do here?" Brandon asked.

"Well, eventually we will do some Close Quarter Battle, or CQB, training in here. But right now, I'm going to give you guys the 'new recruit' treatment." he said with a smile. He walked over to a small table on the platform and grabbed two tape measures, they were just the tape, like you would find in a tailor's shop. He tossed one to me and walked over to Brandon.

"Brandon, hold out your arms. David, measure his waist and his inseam," He instructed as he began measuring Brandon's chest and reach. I started at Brandon's waist with the end of the tape and wrapped it around his stomach. I would be lying of I said that it was not awkward.

"What is this for?" I asked, moving on to measuring Brandon's pant leg.

"I'm going to order you guys some BDU's or Battle Dress Uniforms. But I need to know your guys' measurements so I don't get the wrong size. Then we'll get to more fun stuff." He said as he walked back over to the table and grabbed a yellow legal pad of paper and a pencil and began writing Brandon's measurements.

"What did you get?" he asked me.

"Twenty-eight waist, thirty inseam," I answered.

"I like my pants a little long," Brandon requested.

"OK, make it thirty-two. What's your shoe size?" Big Luke asked.

"ten and a half," Brandon proudly stated.

"OK, David your turn," I held out my arms as the other two measured me up. I had a twenty-six inch waist and twenty-seven inseam. I knew I was short, but I didn't like to be called out about it by people who were taller than me.

"Only twenty-seven inseam eh?" Big Luke said.

"Make it thirty, I also like my pants a little long," I said grinning at Brandon who started cracking up laughing.

"You trying to compensate for something, David?" He said as he started to laugh. I began to bust a gut. We all laughed as a team for the first time.

"OK, I'll get those ordered tonight sometime. I have contacts in the outside world who can pretty much get us what ever we need as long as we keep it in low quantities at a time. Too much at once can trigger a red flag," Big Luke said trying to regain his breath. "Now we get to the fun stuff. I got you guys a couple things," He said as he walked over to the first crate on the left. He pulled the tarp off revealing two piles of "good stuff". Big Luke picked up some sort of body armor and tossed it to Brandon. It hit him with some punch like it was heavy.

"That's a plate carrier. It holds your ballistic plates. You won't need the armor the other campers use. I want you guys to have something relatively bullet proof," Luke tossed me one too and I nearly fell over backwards. The thing weighed a ton for what it was. The front was almost the same as the back. The back panel was about twelve inches wide and sixteen inches tall. It had two straps that would go over my shoulders and two more to go around my stomach that would attach to the front of the vest via Velcro. The front panel had been cropped at the corners. Both of the panels were covered with one inch loops of webbing.

"The loops are called MOLLE, you can slap on what ever kind of pouches you might need," Big Luke informed us. I looked over at Brandon's and noticed that his had a lot more coverage than mine. At first I thought it was another short joke.

"David you're going to be a sniper. I figured you would want a more slimming design to cut out the bulk. Brandon, yours has a little more coverage because you will be coming into buildings with me," Brandon's was similar to Big Luke's in that there was a lot more padding on the shoulder tops and there was a type of cummerbund that went around his stomach. It was also a flat black color where mine was dark green. Big Luke's was desert tan, I had noticed it in the corner. He had several pouches on his and probably weighed a lot more than anything we had.

"Is that one the you had when you were a Marine?" I asked pointing to the vest in the corner.

"There is no such thing as a former Marine, David. Once a Marine, always a Marine. And yes, it's left over from when I was deployed," He answered. "Now I got a serious question for you guys, what kind of gun do you want? Brandon, your going to want something with a short barrel and you might want a folding stock or something."

"What do you have?" asked Brandon.

"Well, I'm glad you asked."

He walked over to the next crate that still had the sheet over it and pulled the sheet off, exposing a few pistols, and a few other things.

"First, you gotta think if you want to use a handgun as a side arm. I noticed you are like, the only guy that doesn't have a real weapon."

"I have a weapon of sorts," Brandon reached around to his back pocket and pulled out a pair of brown, leather work gloves. "When I put these on, I can control the outside temperature of the glove. They are magic and can be super hot or super cold. I've gone all the way down to thirty three kelvin and as high as one-thousand degrees Fahrenheit."

"Wow, I'm just shocked at what it would be like to use those against a monster," I said. "You would either freeze the monster or melt it to dust just by grabbing on to it."

"Yeah. Uh, I would like a side arm," Brandon said, reconsidering the gloves.

"I'll give you one that's pretty standard issue for most operators," Big Luke picked up a handgun that I had recognized from so many movies and video games. That iconic curved grip and that cutaway slide. It was a Beretta M9. This one was brand new and in a holster just like Big Luke's. I could see the push button on the holster and the paddle for a belt or pants.

"This is a Beretta M9, nine millimeter. This is a magic holster so we will have to calibrate it to your hand so only you can pull it out." He handed it to Brandon and he clipped it to his jeans on his right side.

"I'm going to be a sniper right? I'm thinking that something full-auto would be a good sidearm for me. That way I have some firepower if I get spotted or something," I told Big Luke. He gave me a _AH HA! _Look and walked back over to the crate. He picked up something that I had never seen before. It was a little bigger than the M9 and had a sliding stock. The magazine extended from the grip and the barrel was extremely short.

"This is an Heckler and Koch MP7. It is select fire with safe, semi-auto and full-auto options. This is the holster, you just take the elastic band from the top and pull it out like that," The holster was extremely small and didn't cover the front of the weapon, it only held the back. "This is MOLLE compatible so you can put it right on your rig, or I can get you a leg platform that you can mount it to."

"We'll see how it goes today and I'll let you know. We are training today, right?" I asked.

"Before you guys even get a box of ammo, I'm going to teach you some firearms safety," said Big Luke.

We spent the rest of that day loading our weapons and unloading them. Over and over again until we were sick and tired of it, then we did it some more. Constantly removing the mag and pulling the slide back. Then we would check visibly and physically with our finger that the chamber was clear. Then we would sent the bolt or slide home and put it on safe. If we were practicing proper storage, we would send the bolt home on an empty chamber. Then point the gun in a safe direction, basically pointing the thing at anything we wouldn't mind blowing up or killing and pulled the trigger, releasing the firing-pin on the empty chamber.

At the end of the day we put the guns on the rack above the table on the wall. The gun rack was just a pegboard that had hooks aligned just right for each gun to sit level. If we were shooting that day, we would clean each gun thoroughly, even if that gun was never used, and hang it up on the rack. We stored all of our gear in the Kill House because if anyone in camp saw us wearing our new BDU's or carrying machine guns, they might catch on.

* * *

We had trained now for a good week and a half, learning how to clear rooms and shoot under stress. We trained using Simunitions, a non-lethal alternative to live ammo that left a visible mark on impact. We used several automatons as targets, "Tangos" as Big Luke kept calling them. The automatons had guns which were loaded with the same ammo we had or used foam weapons. Many were dressed up in camouflage to signify that they were a "Tango" and others were dressed in other clothes to signify that they were not hostile.

We learned all of the hand signals and terms used in combat. How we looked had changed a lot too. Brandon and I were dressed in a digital camouflage that had lots of blacks and grays in it. The sleeves of the shirts were a canvas type material and the body of the shirts was a gray spandex type material. Our pants were much like Big Luke's only they matched our shirts.

I also had a ghillie suit tucked inside a backpack that was attached to my vest. On the stomach of my vest I had three spare magazines for my new Knight's Armament M110 sniper rifle which is a semi-auto upgrade from the M40 that I had used to train with. It had a bi-pod and a rifle scope. My MP7 was strapped to my right thigh, I had attached a suppressor to the muzzle which made it near silent. I had two spare magazines for it on my belt along with a large open pouch on my lumbar that I used to drop my empty mags. All three of us had helmets with night vision goggles on the fronts of them. The goggles could fold down in front of our eyes and be folded up when they were not needed.

Brandon was now sporting a Heckler and Koch MP5 which was the predecessor to the MP7. He had a fancy holographic sight and a suppressor as well. He had a flashlight mounted to it.

Big Luke had swapped out his old BDU's to the more modern style that we were wearing. He however, refused to swap out his plate carrier because it "carried more than plates", what that meant was beyond me. He was sporting a full-length M16 that had been beat to Hades. He had modified it to have a full-auto function which added another forty-five degrees to the selector switch, for a total of two-hundred twenty five degrees. He had cut the barrel down to eighteen inches and added a suppressor. He had the most sophisticated optics by having a holographic sight and a magnifier that could flip over to the side, mounted right behind it. He had mounted a infrared laser on the top of his Rail Interface System (RIS) and a vertical grip underneath. He swapped out the stock for a tubular one that had a small butt-plate on the back. Needless to say, he knew exactly what he wanted from a weapon. If he couldn't get it, he'd build it.

Today, we were learning how to breach doors. What we had in front of us was a standard wooden door, one that you would find in any office building. Big Luke held up a steel frame that had a block of some kind of plastic explosive on it.

"This is called a kicker charge. When a door is locked, we might use one of these. Most of the time, we will use Brandon's gloves or my 590," By "590" he was referring to his Mossberg 590 which was in a scabbard on his back.

Many SWAT units nicknamed it the "Magic Key" because you could load it with a round that held mostly hard chalk and some lead bearings. This round would punch through the wood either in the door frame or on the door itself in between the handle and the frame, making the door open.

"I think that I should know how that works," said Brandon referring to the kicker charge.

"Yeah, most of the time these have adhesive strips on the back which stick to the door. They also have magnetic ones but they tend to mess with the detonation process," Explained Big Luke.

_**Author's Note:**____**Thanks for reading. I promise the next chapter will have some more action.**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Author's Note:**__** Alright, I promise there is more action in this chapter than the last one. Please comment!**_

* * *

Big Luke

While Percy Jackson was out saving the world or whatever he did. The new guy, Tantalus, who was the new Activities Director, finally let us play a game of Capture The Flag. It was Hephaestus, Athena, Apollo and Dionysus verses Demeter, Ares, Hermes and Aphrodite. The people in the Aphrodite cabin didn't really do anything, as usual. Brandon, David and I tried to avoid each other as much as possible, as not to tip off anyone that we were really the camp's Strike Team. I didn't have any of the armor that the other campers were wearing, I just had my emergency chest rack with a couple spare mags for my M16 on it. I had a first-aid kit on the chest rack too, just in case. I also had my 1911 strapped to my leg. I didn't have any plates in the chest rack because I didn't think I'd need them.

We were getting ready to begin when the counselor for the Apollo cabin got up on top of Zeus's fist where our flag was.

"I'd like to thank everyone for being here. I want Hephaestus cabin to stay back and guard the flag while the rest will fan out and head for theirs. Is that clear to everyone?" he asked. We all nodded, it was standard procedure.

The horn sounded and our attack force moved out. I was never good at waiting around so I snuck away from the huddle by the fist and went looking for some trouble. I had my M16 strapped to my back and my chest rack fit snug to my body. I swapped out my desert MARPAT BDU for the woodland version I had. It was a real basic top with two pockets on the shoulders and two slanted pockets on the chest. In the middle of the summer, the brush was all lightly colored and the dark greens and browns of my BDU stood out like a sore thumb to the trained eye. However, I could blend in OK to my surroundings around the campers.

I crossed the river and began crawling through the bushes trying to sneak up to the flag. I saw lots of people walk by as I slowly pushed along with my toes, dragging my face along the dirt. I had taken my M16 off so it wouldn't stick out as I crawled. I held the sling as it slid on the dirt.

I was getting bored. I thought back to when I went through Marine Scout Sniper training, I didn't graduate because I wasn't patient enough. I was a good shot, but that wasn't it. I could hide, but I couldn't stay that way for very long. So, I kept to the close quarter stuff.

I waited till I saw another enemy patrol walk by to get up. I continued walking towards the flag with my M16 on my back. I knew I wasn't going to be able to just walk right in there and get the flag but the game would be over if I didn't get moving. I had made it to a clearing when I was approached by three Ares kids. They looked to be about sixteen and had full bronze body armor. One had a long spear and the other two had short swords and shields.

"Well, well. What do we have here?" said the one with the spear.

"Looks like we found a lost hillbilly," said the guy on the right.

"Better watch what you say, boy," I told them.

"What are you going to do? Your outnumbered three to one," said the one on the left.

"Yeah, looks like you guys should have brought more people," I said.

"Man, you've been drinking too much of your own moonshine. Don't you have a date with your cousin or something?" he said.

"Boy, them there's fighting words," I said.

"Well, bring it then."

I charged all three of them empty handed. Some might call it reckless, I'd call it evening the odds. These guys were punks and I knew I could take them, no problem. The one with the spear raised his weapon, point first. I blocked it with my forearm and grabbed the shaft with my other hand. The guy on the right came at me with his sword and I swung the spear out of the guys hands and hit the charging guy in the side. He fell to the ground and the third guy tackled me from behind however, I was still on my feet. I dropped the spear and grabbed his sword hand which was coming down at my chest. I pulled him over my shoulder and put him on his back. I twisted his arm so he flipped on his stomach. You can do a lot with pressure points and a little gentle persuasion.

"Is that all you got?" I called to the other two guys who were just now getting to their feet.

The first guy with the spear drew a short knife and charged. He swung down at me with the knife and I caught his wrist. I grabbed the top of his armor plate and fell backwards. I put my boot on his armor and used the centripetal force to throw him over the top of me. I rolled over just as his buddy came down with his sword. I kicked him in the gut as I punched the first guy in the nose.

I stood up and looked around. The guy I threw over my shoulder was clutching his arm, I may have dislocated or broken it. I looked at the kid I punched in the face, his nose was bleeding and possibly broken. That left just one guy. He was bigger and stronger than the other two. He stood there in the clearing, coughing.

"You done yet?" I asked.

"Has the horn sounded yet?" he asked.

"Nope, not yet."

"Then I'm not done yet," he said as he came at me, fists swinging.

He went for my face and I blocked with my forearm. He tried to elbow but I stepped behind his heels and threw him down. He tried to get up but I put my knee on his chest. He punched me in the gut and I fell back. He flipped over and went for my 1911. He was shocked by the holster as he tried to pull it out. The effect was that of a taser, all his muscles clenched up and he let go. I stood up and was about to step on his throat when the horn blew. I wasn't sure who won but my fight was over. I looked down at the son of Ares and lend out my hand. Surprisingly, he accepted it. I didn't like that many Ares kids, but this guy I could respect.

"You fight well for one of Ares' kin. You have more honor than most I've seen," I told him.

"Your not too bad yourself, for a Jarhead," he replied.

We shook hands and I left him to help his friends to the infirmary. I started my hike out of the woods. I didn't go back to camp though. I went to the Kill House instead.

When I got there, I turned on the light over the platform. I took my M16 off my back and got out my cleaning kit and a six pack of Coors I found in the mini-fridge we had. I popped a top and unloaded my meat ax. I hadn't fired a round all day but I enjoyed the quiet time cleaning it gave me.

I popped the pin on the receiver and opened it. I pulled the charging handle and the bolt carrier came with it. I wiped them both down and got out the rod and patches. I threaded a patch with some cleaning solvent, through the end and pushed the rod down the barrel, breach first. When I pulled it back out again, the patch was brown. The barrel had gotten dirty while I was rolling around in the dirt in the fight. I put the patch down the barrel until it stopped getting dirty. Then I put a dry patch through the barrel and cleaned out the solvent. I kept running dry patches through until I got a clean one to come out.

"Your up late," said Brandon who was walking up the stairs. "Is that beer?"

"Yeah, you can't have any," I told the seventeen year old. "What are you doing here?"

"I don't know, couldn't sleep," he lied.

"It's..." I checked my watch. "2100 hours."

"Yeah, well. I've been thinking."

"Uh, oh. That can't be good."

"No, it's just that-" CRASH! The front door of the Kill House busted open.

I had seen bears before, but this was one of the strangest ones I'd ever seen. His head was the whitest white, like something you would see in a Tide commercial and his tail was black as night with all shades of gray in between. He was probably nine feet tall and close to two thousand pounds. He stood up on the platform and he nearly broke through.

"That's the great Ursa!" yelled Brandon.

"He's not an ulcer, it's a bear. And he made me spill my beer!" my half empty, second beer was now spilled on the floor.

"No, _Ursa_. Artemis hunted it once," replied Brandon.

"Whatever."

I drew my 1911 and put the front sight on the bears chest. I flipped off the safety and pulled the trigger twice. The two rounds that I fired landed right where I was aiming. However, the rounds didn't penetrate. They just fell to the floor, steaming.

"That won't work! You can only kill it with arrows!" yelled Brandon.

"Does David have any laying around?" I yelled back, dodging swipes from the bear's cookie sheet-sized paws.

"I don't know. If he does, there in the walls," "the walls" is what we refer the makeshift interior that we have down stairs.

Brandon ran over to the guard that ran along the perimeter of the platform and climbed over it. I kept the bear's attention as he hung off the side of the platform. I had to roll to one side behind the bear just to keep his eyes off Brandon. Brandon dropped down into the walls and started searching for a loose arrow. The bear swung for my head and I tried to go for his leg, big mistake. As I grabbed the leg and lifted, it didn't even budge. The bear came down with his paw behind my knees and I fell backwards. The Ursa was standing over me now.

I hate to say that I was scared, but I certainly wasn't in the greatest predicament I have ever been in. I kicked him in the spot where the sun don't shine and he stumbled enough for me to stand up. I backed up all the way to the table and charged the bear. He was standing right at the top of the stairs when I leaped and put my shoulder on his chest and we went down the stairs. The Ursa was sprawled out at the base of the stairs and I was upside down up against the wall. I'm sure it was the sight to see. Brandon was still missing in action. The Ursa stood up and I rolled off the wall. I wasn't out of the woods yet.

"Where you at Brandon? I ain't fixin' to get a belt for bear wrestling here," I called out, probably to nothing.

"I think I found one," I heard Brandon say.

The Ursa charged me and I charged him. He hit me like a NFL Offensive Lineman. He put both paws on my chest and lifted me in the air and shoved me against the wall. He kept one paw on my chest and had the other up high, ready to strike me dead. Brandon came out from the walls carrying a loose arrow with the Celestial Bronze head glowing in the low light of the Kill House. He ran up to the Ursa just as he was swinging at my face. I saw the arrow being stuck into the Ursa's side.

"ROOOAAAAARRRRRRRR!" he cried out as Brandon pulled out the arrow and repeatedly stabbed him.

I fell to my feet. The Ursa's dust flowed on the floor and made a big mess.

"We are going to have to sweep that up," I said heading for a couple brooms. I gave the hand brush and dust pan to Brandon.

"Why do I need to be on the dust pan?" he asked.

"Because your the youngest and I just fell down the stairs and wrestled a bear," I replied. We were up till two in the morning sweeping the floor and talking.

"So, before the bear came in you were saying that you were thinking about something," I said.

"Yeah, I've been thinking about my mom."

"Athena? Why would you be thinking about her?" I asked.

"Well, you know I'm supposed be a Combat Engineer right? I'm supposed to think under pressure and then make my ideas work," he said. "I was just thinking about her and how she did something similar during the first Titan War. I'm just like my mom."

"Yeah? Well, you know that's why I asked you to do this in the first place. You can handle yourself well. I'm sure Athena would be proud to call you her son," I told him.

"You think?"

"Oh, hell yeah," I returned.

I walked back up the stairs and grabbed another Coors.

"You want anything?" I called over the side.

"Lipton, if you got it."

"How about a Sprite?" I asked with a concerned look on my face. What seventeen year old boy drinks Lipton?

"Close enough."

I walked back down the stairs careful not to step in the already spilled beer on the floor. I handed Brandon his Sprite and I popped the top on my beer. I took a swig, it had gotten warm while it was sitting on the table.

"Are you an alcoholic?" he asked.

"No, It's kinda tradition. A family friend would always drink while we cleaned our guns after we went hunting. That was the only time, never during supper, not even on Sundays during football season. It was like a reward for a good, safe hunt. I'm just keeping with tradition," I explained.

"Can I have one?" he asked.

"No, your way too young. Ask your dad when you see him again," I told him.

"My dad doesn't drink," he said.

"Does he ever take you hunting or shooting?" I asked.

"No, my dad would never do that. He's just a software engineer. I don't think he even owns a gun," he said.

"Tell you what, come deer season, I'll take you," I told him.

"That would be cool."

"Now, I'm going to go mop the floor up there and finish cleaning my guns. You should go get some rest," I told him.

"Yeah, OK. Don't get too drunk."

"I won't," I replied and he was gone.

I mopped up the mess and finished with my M16. I field stripped the 1911 and cleaned it as well. When I finished, I put my tools away and took my chest rack and my M16 back to my rack in Cabin 9. I stored them in my secret compartment and put my 1911 under my bed. Then I drifted to sleep.

* * *

_**Author's**__** Note:**__** In case you haven't noticed, this first story takes place while Percy is in the Sea of Monsters. Chiron is meeting with Big Luke outside the camp's borders to give him and his team updates on their first upcoming operation.**_


	5. Chapter 5

Brandon

Today in hand-to-hand combat class, we headed out for the beach. Big Luke called it a "field trip". Big Luke faced West and the rest of us faced East. I'd like to say that we stood or sat on the beach, but no, we were running down the beach. We went from one boundary line to the other several times. Big Luke ran backwards constantly yelling "Pick it up, ladies!" or "Your falling behind! If you fall behind, you die!". I ran track during the school year, I was not virgin to running. I was virgin to running on the beach in the sand. My feet sunk in with every step. We were running in the deeper sand by the treeline which made it harder. I was a lot better off than most people in my class. Big Luke grew tired of yelling and started telling us about the rest of class.

"When I was in Basic Training on Paris Island in South Carolina. We learned MCMAP or Marine Corps Martial Arts Program," he pronounced it like "Mic-Map". "One day, we went out in the swamp. We went two-on-one all afternoon. The goal was to wrestle the opposition so their heads went under the water. That's what we are going to do today in the surf," Big Luke explained.

We finally stopped running back and fourth on the beach where the east creak runs into the ocean. Big Luke started running to the water, everyone else fallowed. He stopped and waited for everyone to catch up. Then he walked into the water, didn't even take his shoes or his gun off. He went out so he was about waist deep and turned around.

"Come on in! The water's fine!" he called out.

We stepped into the water hesitantly. The water was not fine at all, is was frigid cold and the waves hit like punches. We stood around in the cold water and waited for instruction. Big Luke was waiting on purpose, letting our bodies get used to the water. Or he just wanted to watch us shiver.

"Now, who did not hear the instructions?" He asked while grasping his hands behind his back.

A few people in the back raised their hands.

"Great, you guys can go first. Come up here," Big Luke said.

He pointed to one of the people that didn't raise their hand and one that did and told them to come up. He faced them in front of each other and held his hand out in between them. Signaling that they were about to fight.

"Eyes and nose are off limits. Everything else is fare game," Big Luke instructed.

He dropped his hand and the two went at it. It was hard to tell what each person was doing with their feet but I assume it wasn't much since our feet sunk into the sand and mud at our feet. I was shivering and was starting to turn white. I started pulling my feet out of the dirt and putting them back down again. I alternated each foot, trying to stay warm.

The guy that didn't hear the instructions was getting whooped. The other guy had him in a rear-naked choke and squatted down in the water so the guy that he was choking's head went under the water.

Immediately, Big Luke yelled "Stop!".

The guy stood up and picked the other guy up out of the water. He was coughing when they bumped fists and melted into the crowd. Big Luke pointed at me and two other guys. We walked up.

"Your facing these two guys," he told me.

One guy was about David's height and a bit overweight. The other was tall and lengthy, surely he could outreach me but he had a higher center of gravity. The short, fat guy was standing there with his hands at his side, still panting from the run. The tall guy had crossed his arms and was shivering. Big Luke dropped his hand in between us and we went at it. I ducked under one of Tall's right hooks and put my shoulder into him. He backed up a few steps and I stood up. Fatty came around me and grabbed me around the waist. Before he could do anything, I elbowed him in the face, making him release me. I turned around and punched him in the nose and he fell backwards. Tall came up behind me and tried to tackle me, but he came too high and I drug him over my shoulder, holding him under the water.

"Stop!" called Big Luke and i let the guy up. "Your not done yet. Now, you need to finish this," he told Fatty who was pretty ticked off since I punched him in the nose. I knew it was against the rules but when your fighting two guys in waist deep water, rules tend to go in one ear and out the other.

Tall melted into the crowd and Big Luke held his hand out in between Fatty and I. He dropped his hand and the match continued.

That's when I found out that people get extremely angry when they are punched in the nose.

He came at me and tried to punch me in the face. I grabbed his fist and moved it away. He came back and elbowed me in the nose. I blacked out for a split second and he was on top of me, holding my neck with both hands under the water. I couldn't hear much as I thrashed around in the waves, choking on water. It felt like an eternity under there.

Finally, I was forced out of the water and was allowed to cough for air. Big Luke had thrown Fatty off of me and he fell over backwards. I shook the water off of me, similar to what a dog might do and watched the show as it unfolded.

"You need to listen when I tell you stop. Or else I get angry," said Big Luke.

"He punched me in the nose!" protested Fatty.

"I'll punch you in the nose if you don't follow instructions again," threatened Big Luke.

Fatty apparently wasn't listening because he tried to punch Big Luke in the face. Big Luke blocked with his forearm and planted his right knuckles into the guys nose. Then he pushed him back into the waves again. Fatty stood up in the water and two streams of blood were flowing from both his nostrils.

"What did I tell you? Now, go clean yourself up," commanded Big Luke.

Fatty stormed off toward the beach, pushing through the crowd as he walked by.

"Now, who's next?" asked Big Luke.

We continued these wrestling matches till the end of the class. Then we headed for the dining pavilion. Big Luke held me back because he wanted to talk to me.

"You know what you did wrong right?" he asked.

"Yeah, I should never of punched him in the nose."

"No, that was fine," he replied as if it was no big deal. "You should have expected him to be gunning for you. I could tell by his body movements that he was going to elbow you in the face like that."

"Do you think we can practice that a little bit?" I asked.

I knew that something like this could easily happen again and I wanted to be ready.

"Yeah, sure," agreed Big Luke.

We stood there in the surf and Big Luke tried to punch me in the face. I blocked like I had done to Fatty and Big Luke tried to elbow me in the face, about quarter speed. Obviously I could see it coming a mile away and I grabbed his elbow with my left hand. I grabbed his wrist with my right hand and put him in a arm bar. He winced a little bit and I continued to apply force to the arm bar. I let go and Big Luke returned to his original position.

His hands were in loose fists in front of his face. His chin was tucked in, protecting his throat. He had one foot in front of the other and his knees were slightly bent. This stance was called the "Basic Warrior Stance". We continued this, increasing the speed every repetition. Big Luke was constantly telling me "That's good" and "Nice job". He was a good teacher and very supportive.

It was starting to get dark and even colder in the water. The tide was starting to come in and we got out of the ocean. We took a seat on a beach for a few minutes to catch our breath.

"So, how you doing?" asked Big Luke.

"Cold, very, very cold," I answered.

"OK, lets go, we will warm up at campfire," he said as he got to his feet.

We started walking back to camp and as we did, we kept talking.

"Has Chiron told you guys anything about our first operation?" I asked.

"I don't know. He has a couple things in mind. He hasn't told me much in the way of details."

"What kind of things?"

"You may want to start thinking about a rescue mission. Like I said, I don't have details. I don't even know where in the country or who we are rescuing. It could also be some kind of recovery mission. I really don't have details at this point," explained Big Luke.


	6. Chapter 6

David

One Friday, we decided to take a break from training and spend the afternoon on the basketball court. We mounted a basketball hoop on one wall in the arena so that we could hide a little from the rest of camp. We started off playing one-on-one-on-one. Brandon was fast and could dunk, but wasn't the best shot. Big Luke was tall and could block most of our shots. His strategy was a good defense was the best offense.

Give me anything, bow, rifle, even a sling shot and I'll hit the bulls-eye every time. You give me a basketball and tell me to shoot a basket, I'll have a little trouble. I could dribble and move around the court with ease. Just getting myself to score any points was a chore.

We played for forty-five minutes straight and Brandon took a break. Big Luke and I started our own game, one-on-one. He kicked my butt, I had only made a couple of baskets and Big Luke had nine under his belt. He played in his BDU pants and his orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt. His combat boots scratched at the hard dirt floor in the arena. He had taken his hat off and laid it on the wall by the makeshift court.

"David, your the best shot, out of everybody I've ever seen. Why can't you shoot a basket?" asked Big Luke, breathing heavily.

"I was never good at basketball," I replied, trying to catch my own breath.

Big Luke had the ball, dribbling from one hand to the other. He was standing on the three-point line, waiting for me to make a move. I stood around the free-throw line with a wide and low stance. Big Luke wasn't a patient person. He put the ball in his right hand and attempted to dribble around me. I kept with him but as we came closer to the hoop. He got low and stopped. He kept dribbling as he faked like he was going to go for the hoop. He kept doing it until he tried for real. He came around me after I planted my left foot hard on the ground instead of staying on my toes like I should have done. This slowed me down as he went around me and put a perfect layup in the basket. It was losers ball and I was definitely losing.

I had the ball as I stood on the three-point line. I was about to charge for the hoop when Big Luke unexpectedly stopped and stood up.

"Hey, Jarhead," said a voice from behind me.

I turned around and saw a half-dozen guys about fifteen to sixteen years old entering the arena. The tallest was about five-eleven, the shortest was five-three. They weren't really big but they looked like they were looking for trouble. They came from a lot of different cabins, two of which were from Hephaestus, one was from Apollo and the rest were Ares kids. Two of them were carrying ballpein hammers the rest had baseball bats. Not an ideal situation.

"What's up, fellas?" asked Big Luke casually.

"We heard what you did to a few friends of ours," said one with a ballpein hammer.

"Who might that be?" asked Brandon.

"During capture the flag a while ago," said the Apollo kid with a baseball bat.

"Why are you hanging out with these guys? This isn't what Apollo is all about," I said to my half-brother.

He ignored me and tapped the baseball bat to his shoe like he was going up to bat.

"They recovering OK?" asked Big Luke.

"Yeah, they are doing fine in the infirmary. They wanted us to put you there, for embarrassing Ares," said one of the Ares kids.

"That's why you brought guys from other cabins, including mine? They tell you to bring more bodies?" asked Big Luke.

"They might have mentioned it," one of them said.

Big Luke snickered and said "Don't you guys know that I am the hand-to-hand combat instructor here?" I guess it was more of a threat than anything.

"Well, no."

"Did you also know that this 1911 I have on my leg holds eight rounds with one in the pipe? Do you know how many people you brought?" he asked the group.

"We brought six guys," another said.

"Do the math," said Big Luke.

I didn't know what he was trying to pull with these guys. He wasn't about to shoot six teenagers who thought they were mobsters or Hells Angels. I knew he might be able to take them with some help from Brandon or I. I knew I didn't want to face any of these guys with the tools they brought. The group thought about it for a second. I guess they didn't want to risk it, so they left with a quiet "Have a nice day".

"What was that all about?" asked Brandon after the group left.

"I got in a fight with a few Ares kids in the capture the flag game a while back. I guess I put a couple of them in the infirmary," He replied. "But in my defense, there were three of them."

"Let me get this straight," I said. "You took on three armed demigods, and won? You didn't use your weapons?"

"Yes to both questions. I had my M16 and my 1911, but didn't fire a single round," he replied rather arrogantly.

"Would you have really shot those guys?" asked Brandon.

"I would try to take them on empty handed. I would only resort to firing on our own if it was truly life or death," he said. "Just because they were armed doesn't mean they are invincible."

"Why didn't you take them on? It seems like you never back down from a challenge," I asked.

"If they really wanted to go at it, I would of. But I could see it in their faces that they were nervous. I merely exploited that. We need all the people we can get in this war," he replied. "What would you guys of done if they came at me?"

"I'll be honest with you, I'm not a fan of hammers. I might have done something, but no promises," said Brandon.

"I understand. Unconventional weaponry can be a little intimidating. The trick in that situation is to appear bigger than you really are, like many animals have adapted to do. Like a dog's hackles or how a gorilla will stand up and puff his chest out before a fight. It's all for show but if it can get the opponent to back down, it's a success," He explained.

"It's the psychological factor," I put in.

"Yeah. A good part of War is psychological," Big Luke mentioned. "So what do you guys want to do? Run the walls a couple times?"

We nodded and headed for the woods. We arrived at our Kill House and suited up. I checked my MP7 to make sure it was loaded. I avoided using my M110 in close quarters because it was so long and heavy. I wasn't sure why Big Luke preferred his M16, once he put a suppressor on the barrel, the whole gun was longer than my M110. I still had the sniper rifle on my back, over my bow for training purposes. Big Luke instructed the automatons to randomize the layout of the walls. He told them six hostiles and two non-combatants. We waited outside the door until we heard the walls stop moving. Then we breached; Brandon, our doorman, opened the front door. Big Luke took point and I followed. Brandon took up the rear.

We still couldn't tell what the layout of the walls were because there was always two walls that stretched the width of the room and had a door size gap in the middle. The gap was door sized so that the automatons could put a door there. They had turned off all the lights so we had to flip our night vision down.

What we saw was a standard wooden door. Locked or unlocked, we didn't know until Brandon jumped ahead to the door as if it was instinct. Big Luke and I stacked up on the handle side of the door where Brandon was away from it. This way, he could reach across the door and pull it open for Big Luke to take point.

Big Luke held up three, gloved fingers, signaling we were about to breach. Brandon gripped the handle and waited. Big Luke counted down silently with his fingers and when he brought the last one down, Brandon opened the door. Big Luke walked through with his M16 shouldered.

Immediately there was a narrow hallway that stretched the width of the room and turned the corner on both ends. We could go right or left all the way down, there was no other way. We took a knee by the door we had just come out of and I pulled security while Brandon and Big Luke discussed our next plan of action. The discussion was not closed to me but I left the planning to those guys. Brandon looked at Big Luke and Big Luke held his thumb in his other fingers, he flicked the thumb out several times, signaling a fifty-fifty chance. Brandon waved to the right. Big Luke shrugged and took point.

We reached the left turn and Big Luke took out a small mirror from a pouch on the chest of his plate carrier. He leaned up against the wall and held the mirror at an angle so he could see around the corner. He turned it slightly back and forth so he could see the whole hallway. He reached his fist back over his shoulder and I bumped it with mine. I tapped Brandon's side, behind me and he tapped back.

We quietly crept down the hallway. There were several open entryways without doors down the left side of the hall. Big Luke stopped in front of the first door. He slipped the forend of his M16 in his weapons catch and un-holstered his 1911. He held it out in front of him as he pivoted on his front foot and stood in front of the entryway. He moved in and I moved on to the next room. I did the same movement with my feet but when I stuck my barrel in the entryway I was attacked by a automaton dressed in old, tattered Army fatigues with a rubber knife. He tackled me and I was on my back. I didn't have a sling for my MP7 so I dropped it. The automaton straddled me and came down with the fake knife on to my chest. Before the knife made it there, I heard a quick PHAP, PHAP PHAP! I watched as three nine millimeter size paint spots land on the automaton's shoulder. Brandon had shot the robot with his MP5. Three rounds on semi-auto saved my ass from the exercise.

The automaton just got up and headed for the exit. Brandon lent me a hand and I took it. I was a bit shaken up from the sneak attack. My legs and hands were shaking uncontrollably. Big Luke walked over, it was hard to tell what his expression was under his NVG. He pointed down the hall and we moved out. Big Luke took up the rear and I took point. We had cleared each room without issue. When we made it to the corner to a hallway that went down to the left side of the building. There was a break in the middle on the left side that lead to many more rooms. I was positioned on the left side of the entryway to the hallway that connected the rooms with Brandon right behind me. Big Luke was positioned on the right so he had to switch his M16 to his left hand. I looked at Big Luke for the "go ahead" and he nodded. I turned the corner and there was a robot hunched way over with a Red Riding Hood style of hood on. It turned and the terminator like features of the automaton spooked me and I pulled my trigger. A short burst on full-auto spewed from my MP7. All four rounds landed on the automaton's shoulder.

"Stop!" yelled Big Luke and the lights came on. "Game over."

"Sorry, the face spooked me," I admitted as I flipped up my NVG.

"It's all right, David. You just need to learn how to settle down, especially after a ambush like what happened over there," said Big Luke pointing to the right side of the building where we were a few seconds ago.

"You'll get it right next time," said Brandon.

We took our gear off and we headed up to the platform to clean our weapons. As Big Luke's tradition states, cleaning guns required a beer. I had a Coke sitting next to my M110 that was sitting on the table, waiting patiently to be cleaned. Brandon was cleaning his MP5 and had a Sprite sitting on the table. Big Luke sat across the table from me where he was cleaning the barrel on his M16.

"So when do we get our first mission?" asked Brandon.

"I'll talk to Chiron about it when I think we're good and ready. Only a couple weeks of training is not enough. Good news is we are getting there," Big Luke replied.

"Any ideas when that might be?" I asked.

"Look, I know you guys are anxious but trust me, we still have a few weeks. I had to wait six months before I ever got any action when I was deployed," said Big Luke.

We changed the subject as we continued to clean our weapons. I had moved on to my M110 even though I hadn't even chambered a round. Big Luke stressed proper maintenance and cleanliness so that everything always worked like it should of. After we had finished, we placed our guns on the peg board, except for Big Luke who took his M16 with him to place in his cabin.


	7. Chapter 7

Brandon

We were six weeks into training. Our timing was spot-on and our communications had improved since Day 1. Now it was getting time to do our first mission and Big Luke was running late to our pre-operation briefing. Ever since Mr. D cut Chiron loose, Big Luke had to leave camp to meet with him. This made meetings with Chiron where the whole team could be present difficult.

"What do you think we are going to do?" I asked David, trying not to get my hopes up.

"We will probably be dropped out to some Dairy Queen that's infested with monsters. We haven't really trained for anything else," David said, keeping calm and collected.

"Aren't you excited? This is our first shot at some action! Right on the front lines of this war," I just let it all rang out. I was excited and I wasn't going to hide it any longer.

"It can't be very big, it's our first one. I wouldn't get my hopes up. We've been training to get in and get out in the least amount of time possible. We will probably be home by four in the morning," suggested David.

"You're probably right, Oh, here he comes," Big Luke walked in to the Kill House and started walking up the stairs to the platform, looking at a large sheet of paper. When he got to the top of the stairs he looked up:

"Hey guys, you ready for something?" He asked the question that needed no answer.

He walked over to the table and cleared it off of the radios we had charging and a few other pieces of gear that we had laying on the table. He spread the paper out which turned out to be a map and stood a flashbang on each corner to keep it from rolling up.

"Brandon, you ever been to Westview High School? Because we are going to your home state," I was an in inner city kid and went to Lincoln High School, so my school's football team played Westview's a couple of times.

Westview was a fairly new school, built in the mid 1990's and had well over two-thousand students. It was technically located in Portland but was so close to the suburb of Beaverton that many of the students considered it in Beaverton. They were a very misrepresented school. They were often called "Mini Utah" because they had so many Mormons that went there. They were also considered a rich person's school because there were several multistory houses with lush green lawns and Mercedes Benz's, and BMW's in their driveways located around the school grounds. The houses were fact but the school was not a rich person's school. Almost half the student's had free or reduced lunch and many were on drugs. I had never been inside but I had heard that the layout of the building was pretty symmetrical.

"My high school had played them a couple of times. What happened? It's the middle of the summer," I said. I was confused. _What would be going on there?_

"Aphrodite gave Chiron a message. Apparently, she has two of her kids hiding out in that building," He pointed to the map where there was a red "X" on the the roof of the school. Right across the street was another school, smaller in size and had way less real estate. There was a small "H" written in red on the top of that building as well. The "H" stood for "Hawkeye" who was a superhero in _The Avengers _comic books. He used a bow and arrow and was a perfect shot. We had used heroes from different medias for call-signs over our radios to hide our identities in case the opposition had found our radio frequency. David was "Hawkeye", I was "MacGyver" and Big Luke was "Red 5" which was an inside joke that we had because "Red 5" was what Luke Skywalker's call-sign was in _Star Wars_, the joke was Big Luke never saw those movies.

"We are looking for a Ms. Brittany and Mr. Mathew Hughes, spawn of Aphrodite. Brittany is nineteen and Mathew is ten. They were originally from the state of Montana, they ran away from home after their house was overrun by monsters while their dad was at work. They ran West and planned to make a final stand on the beach. They made it as far as Portland and found themselves inside the school. We believe that they are held up on the North end of the building. However they could easily be anywhere in the school. Aphrodite is a bit sketchy on the details. She doesn't want Zeus to find out that she gave us the tip," Big Luke briefed us on the situation.

"What kind of opposition are you guys looking at? I know that I'm going to be looking at the West side of the school so if the enemy is on the East, I won't be able to engage them early," asked David.

"As far as opposition goes, we have no idea. We could have monsters in the building when we get there or they could be in Nevada for all we know. I have a buddy that owes me a few favors, he will get us wheels up," Big Luke explained. "Wheels up" meant we were going to be airborne upon arrival. "We need to get going now so we can be there by midnight, local time."

We got all our gear on in advance and headed out for the van that would take us to a Air Force base outside New York. It was close to ten o' clock at night and with about a six or seven hour flight would land us in Portland around 12:00 or 12:30.

* * *

We were 32,000 feet above the ground in a C-130 military airplane, somewhere over the Oregon-Idaho border. It was like flying in a giant tin can, the whole plane rattled as we flew and the walls seemed like paper. We were all standing around a table that had been bolted to the floor of the aircraft. The map had been spread out and another piece of paper with a rendering of the school. We could see inside to both the second and first floors.

I was amazed at the layout of the school. Imagine a giant butterfly of sorts from a birds-eye view. The upper parts of the wings are the hallways on the West side. There were two floors so a total of four hallways on the West side. On what would be the lower parts of the butterfly's wings are the Auditorium on the North side and a few classrooms on the South side.

"How do you want to infill, Brandon?" asked Big Luke. "We will HALO jump onto the ground. Where is up for debate."

"What's a HALO jump?" asked David.

"Good question. HALO stands for High Altitude, Low Opening. So, get ready to jump out of a perfectly good airplane boys," That scared the shit out of me. I wasn't ready to jump out of a perfectly good airplane.

My eyes went wide and Big Luke noticed.

"It will be fine. We will probably be strapped together anyway. David, how does that sound to you?"

"Cool! We come in like fricking Delta Force! This is so cool because I have actually skydived before. My mom is a skydiving instructor so I know how to steer the parachute and all of that," He exclaimed, at least one of us was excited.

"Alright, so, how do we get in?" Big Luke asked.

We already knew that most of the doors on the inside were made of wood, however the frames were made of metal. All of the doors that went to the outside were made of metal and were going to be a bit hard to break without setting off the alarm system. None of us wanted to be caught by the police, it would be way too hard to explain two teenagers and a Marine with full kits infiltrating a school in the middle of the night.

"How about we land right on the football field and then scan the side of the building for a open window or two? It gets hot at night in Oregon during the summer and the school district probably doesn't have the air-conditioning going. They probably have a window or two open to keep cool."

"The problem is the windows don't slide, they swing open from a hinge and they only go so far. Even if they did have a window open, we wouldn't be able to get in," said Big Luke.

"We got screwdrivers, we could hand it to Brittany and she could unscrew the window from the frame. We haul them out through the window and leave," I explained.

"That sounds good to me," David put in.

"And if the monsters get there first, they would have blown a hole in the building somewhere and got in that way. Worst comes to worst, we go in through their hole. But I am not leaving with out the package, one way or another," continued Big Luke. We all knew that if monsters made their way into the building that there was, at best, a fifty-fifty chance that the two half-bloods in the building could be hurt, or worse.

"Two minutes to target, Marine," we heard over the intercom in the plane. We were the only ones on the plane except for Big Luke's pilot friend from when he served.

"Thanks a lot, Butch. Just put us right over Winnebago's football field," replied Big Luke. "Winnebago" was code for Westview High School.

"And Jon Luke, I don't think I'll be able to fly you guys home. D.C. Just called. They want me back ASAP." he informed us.

"That's all right, we can find another way home," Big Luke replied.

I didn't know how we were going to get home. _What if the two demigods are already dead? Would we have to carry the bodies home?_ I think Big Luke was just hoping for the best.

Big Luke walked over next to the door on the right side of the plane and grabbed two parachutes and three harnesses. He handed one harness to both of us and we put them on over our gear. Big Luke and David each put on a parachute. I was going to be attached to Big Luke. I could feel the plane loop around so that we would be coming at the school from the West.

David walked to the door and turned the handle. The door pulled open and we were hit with a huge force of wind. It was dark outside and it was cold at the altitude we were at. I could see the city lights still bright as we were about to come down on top of them. David stepped over to the edge.

"Wait to pull your chute until you hit about two-thousand feet from the ground. Then land yourself on the top of the Elementary School and get set up," screamed Big Luke over the wind. David nodded. "OK, jump!" and David jumped with out hesitation.

Big Luke walked behind me and attached two carabiners to my harness and locked them into place. We walked over to the edge and Big Luke handed me a small GPS device with our current altitude shown on the screen. We were flying at about 30,000 feet now.

"Hold that out in front of you so I can read it," Big Luke yelled and I did.

Without warning, Big Luke shoved me out the door of the airplane and I nearly dropped the GPS. We fell at such a high rate of speed, my goggles pressed hard against my face. I'd like to say that I did my job of holding the GPS out in front of us and kept quiet on the way down. But I was screaming at the top of my lungs.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I screamed.

Big Luke grabbed my arm and forcefully extended it out strait. His arms were so long compared to mine that he could hold my arm at the wrist. I saw the number quickly decline as we did. It felt like we were airborne for hours, but the number on the screen helped keep a time spectrum inside my head.

Once we got to about 10,000 feet we went from all most upside down to horizontal and we began to slow down a little bit. I could see David's parachute open as we continue to free fall. He was now gliding to his landing zone. I looked back at the GPS and saw that it had hit two-thousand feet. I felt Big Luke grab the cord and pull it. However, we continued to fall.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" I began to scream again.

Big Luke reached for the reserve cord and pulled it too and the wind was knocked out of me as the parachute opened and the harness punched me in the chest. I had dropped the GPS now so I didn't know what altitude we were at. We had slowed down now to a crawl compared to what we were falling at.

I could see Winnebago several hundred yards away. As we glided closer to it, I could see David landing on the roof of the Elementary school right across the street from the high school. He landed and somersaulted. Then he began packing up his parachute.

We had landed on the turf of the field hard. Big Luke did his best to land us sideways so he wouldn't come in on top of me. We couldn't really roll any which way we wanted to because we were connected. So we ended up sliding along the turf. We came to a stop right on the "CATS" logo on the football field. Westview's mascot is the Wildcats.

"WOOO! Man, that was fun!" I screamed as Big Luke unclipped us. I stood up.

"Shhh," whispered Big Luke as he got up as well. "Turn on your radio," I reached around and turned the switch on my radio and so did Big Luke. "Can you hear me, MacGyver?" asked Big Luke through the microphone on his headset.

"Loud and clear, Red 5," I responded through my own microphone.

"Glad you guys could drop by. I'm going to have to move to the middle of the field. I can't see anything in the entry way from where I am, over." relayed David.

"Good copy, Hawkeye." said Big Luke.

Big Luke walked over by the home-side bleachers and began packing the parachute on the track. We walked around and tossed it over the fence under the bleachers which blocked off a bunch of large shipping containers under them. We also tossed our harnesses.

I had my MP5 on a sling much like you would have on a hunting rifle. A standard nylon strap that connected to the MP5 on the front near the muzzle and on the back where the stock hinged to the right side of the weapon. The sling was on my left shoulder and crossed my body so the weapon hung at my right side. I loosened up the strap and brought the MP5 near my right hip.

Big Luke's sling was a little different in that it was more of a loop with one way to attach to his M16. It was also slung on his left shoulder and hung at his right side. He had a plastic C-shaped catch attached to the right side of his vest. The opening of the "C" faced backwards to hold the M16's forend on his right side.

To our right we could see a bike path and a baseball field that was fenced off. To our right was the entrance to the football field which was gated off, the whole field for that matter was fenced off. We were going to have to hop the fence to get in the school. The school itself was a light brown color with lots of windows. We could see a ramp that was probably wide enough to put a car in that went down to the locker rooms most likely. There was a road that went up a small hill to the other side of the building. Being the middle of the summer all the grass on the lawns were dead which was normal for Oregon.

We took a knee by the fence and caught our breath. The adrenaline was still pumping from the jump and as a result we were breathing heavily. We began looking around and Big Luke saw something on the South side of the school.

"Looks like we weren't the first ones here. Look," He pointed a gloved finger to a garage type door on the side of the building that faced us. The door was tall enough you could drive a semi through it, however the width wouldn't be able to support anymore than a golf cart. There was a hole cut through the door big enough for some pretty big monsters to get in.

"We gotta move," Big Luke said.

"MacGyver to Hawkeye. Be advised: Tangos have cut through the garage door on the South side, over," I radioed to David.

"Copy that, MacGyver. Tangos have cut through the garage door on the South side. MacGyver and Red 5 be advised: I have made it to my FFP and I can see monsters through out the first floor, South side of Winnebago," replied David. "FFP" stood for Final Firing Position, meaning David had made it to the field where he could see the whole West side of the building.

"Red 5 to Hawkeye: how many Tangos can you see, over?" asked Big Luke.

"At least twenty, possibly more, over." replied David.

We were in for a long night.


	8. Chapter 8

Big Luke

"We're going in, no question about it. We have to get those two to Camp Half-Blood," I told Brandon. "Red 5 to Hawkeye: we are proceeding into Winnebago via the garage door, over."

"Good copy, Red 5," It wasn't a necessary transmission but I wanted get the message across to my team that this was going to happen and it was going to happen now.

I knelt down next to the fence and laced my fingers so Brandon could hop it. He hopped over and I followed. We walked up the little strip of pavement, past the steel cable gate in the middle, to the garage door on the South side.

The hole was probably eight feet high and four feet wide and went almost to the bottom of the door. I don't know what kind of monsters they were but they were tall. We moved inside to see a workshop with chop saws and four wooden tables to the left of us and four welding booths arranged into a circle to the rear surrounded by several welders of all types. There were several large squares made from steel tubing and semi-clear plastic with a red tint that shielded the other half of the metals area. There was a large shelf in the middle on the back wall with lots of large pieces of lumber. Turning the corner I could see all the way to the back where there was more lumber.

I also saw a hellhound facing away from us, sniffing at the lumber. The thing was huge, probably the size of a Prius. I'm not sure how it made it through the door. I walked sideways to get a clear shot. I found a good position by several metal shears and drill presses and shouldered my rifle. Brandon saw it too and stayed where he was, shouldering his MP5. I slid the selector switch into the three-round burst position. In theory, when I pulled the trigger once, the gun would fire three rounds. I moved my finger to the trigger and pulled it. The loudest sound went off, CLICK! The gun didn't fire, I had forgotten to work the action, chambering the first round. I didn't have time to be pissed at myself for such a rookie mistake, the hellhound turned and I could see the fire in his eyes.

Before I could even bring my hand up to the charging handle the hellhound tackled me. I was flat on my back underneath his jaws and teeth inches from my face. Brandon tried his trigger and his MP5 also went CLICK! Rather than reaching for his charging handle, Brandon dropped the MP5 and let the sling catch it as he went for his M9 on his right hip. The hellhound charged him as he brought the gun up. He fired a quick two rounds and the hellhound stumbled a little bit as it started to crumble into gold monster dust. I racked my M16 as quick as I could and shot the final round into the hellhound's rear quarter. The hellhound crumpled to dust and Brandon gave me a hand up.

"OK, let's make sure that never happens again," I whispered.

I heard a door open behind us and I turned. Two dracaenae came in with bronze swords in both hands. I put two rounds in the first one and the other charged us screaming. I knelt down and just as she swung her sword, Brandon put three rounds from his MP5 into her face. Both of the dracaenae crumpled to dust. Their swords covered in the gold powder. We went through the door that they came out of. Out of three, that one seemed like the one to use.

We found ourselves in a classroom that was very large and lighted by the little light from outside. There were tables set up around the perimeter with several iMac computers and two more rooms along the back wall. One room was completely blacked out and the other had lime green walls. It was probably a film making room during the school year. There was an emergency exit at the end of the room.

Through the door's window, I could see one of two hallways that was lined with classrooms. Several lights were on that we could see in the dark. There were several monsters rummaging through each classroom trying to find the demigods. I walked over and checked the room with the blacked out walls. I pulled down my night vision goggles and looked inside, nothing of interest. I flipped my NVG back up and walked out. Brandon looked at me and I shook my head.

We continued out to the hallways. I cleared to the right as Brandon who took point, cleared front. We could have moved forward and turned right and saw a staircase that went up to the second floor. On the first floor, there would have been the hallway with all of the monsters. We could also have looped around and found ourselves in the cafeteria. Since I was so much taller than Brandon I could see right over the top of him, even when he stood straight up. We both took a knee and I radioed to David:

"Red 5 to Hawkeye: we have successfully infiltrated Winnebago and took down three Tangos. How's it lookin' out there?" There was a long pause.

"Hawkeye to Red 5: Lights are starting to turn on on the first floor on the North side hallway, break," another long pause. "They are about halfway done clearing the North hallway. Still no sign of the package. I suggest you guys make your way up to the second floor on the North side, over."

"Good copy Hawkeye, making our way to upper North hallway," I whispered.

We went strait down to the intersection and Brandon cleared right as I peaked left. I was positioned on the right side next to the wall as Brandon was on the left at the base of the stairs so our line of sights crossed each others. I could see one Telekhine, or a dog-faced sea demon walking underneath another staircase heading to the second floor. I decided to let him pass as he was not really looking our direction. Light tan colored lockers lined the way and I could see a break in the wall on the left where there must have been a window because light from outside was leaking in.

I signaled to Brandon to move on and he took point up the stairs. The staircase was some kind of gray stone that had a break in the middle to turn around and go up to the second floor. The stone and tile flooring made our job easier because it it wasn't going to creak as we walked on it. The trick was to make our shoes not squeak as we walked. Brandon walked up backwards shouldering his MP5 as he walked up. I walked up backwards too only my muzzle was pointed at the base of the stairs to cover our six. The stairs were very wide so we walked up the stairs at an angle. When we made it to the break and Brandon walked forward while I continued to cover our backs.

Brandon peeked around the corner. He tapped my shoulder once, signaling that it was clear. We moved on down the hallway, I was still covering our six when I heard David squeak over the radio:

"Hawkeye to Red 5 and MacGyver: Be advised, there are Tangos making their way to the second floor on the South side, over."

"Copy that, we are still making our way to the North side of the building but we have made it to the second floor," I whispered into my microphone, putting one hand on the button and the other still on the trigger of my M16.

The M16 was not a short weapon by any means but it was what I had used all throughout my deployment. It never let me down even after everything it went through. I currently had my magnifier flipped to the right side of the weapon exposing my holographic sight. My infared laser bouncing around on the walls.

It was dark on the second floor and very little light came in where we were looking. Both of us had our NVG over our eyes, ignoring the white spots where the light had slipped in. We had adjusted the goggles for the extra light but it didn't help a whole lot. This limited our field of view so it was really hard to not get tunnel vision on one particular spot. I had heard that a company was working on a set of NVG that had four optical tubes rather than just the one that we had. That would increase the field of view quite substantially. But tonight, we were making do with what we had.

We had made the right hand turn going past the library. Brandon pointed his muzzle in the library until he was perpendicular to the catwalk that we were now walking on, the left was a drop into the entryway of the school protected by a short, blue, metal rail, on the right was the library. When he reached his ninety degrees, he bumped my left side and I turned to ninety degrees and took over looking into the library. We had made our way across the catwalk and Brandon looked right, down the other side of the school. Then he looked left and tapped me again on my right side once and we moved towards the left.

Immediately the hallway expanded and there was a computer room to the left followed by a door that went into a large room that was filled with desks and filling cabinets. I walked over and tried the door handle on the computer room, it was unlocked and I knew immediately that they would not be in there.

If they were smart they would have locked the doors the best they could. Brandon tried a door on the right and got the same result. I didn't even try the office section because they would be held up in a classroom most likely, it would be more familiar to their subconscious. I peeked into the two classrooms on the outside of the corner, nothing. Brandon walked over to the adjacent classroom that was next to the first one and tried the handle. I laughed quietly to myself because the sign next to the door read "N223", my M16 fires a .223 cartridge.

"Hey, I've got something. It's locked and they piled things in front of the door so you can't see inside," whispered Brandon. We could hear the thrashing and crashing down below us.

"How can we get in? I don't want to scare them with the 590, nor do I want to make that kind of racket," I asked.

"I don't want to scare them either. Give me your crowbar," I walked over to him and turned around and knelt down.

"Just undo the straps on the side of the pack," I told him as he began taking off my twenty-four inch crowbar.

I stood up and Brandon jammed the straight end of the crowbar into the space between the door and the door frame right above the handle. He pushed as hard as he could but the door wouldn't pop.

"Look out," I said, loosing my patience.

I flipped up my NVG and stood parallel to the door and raised my foot. I kicked forward on the crowbar as hard as I could and the door opened and slammed into me. I grabbed it and swung it open. I saw a gray table with black legs blocking the door. On top of it was a rolling office chair. This confused me because the door was pulled open so all the blockage was pretty much pointless.

The room must have been a science class. There were several gray tables like the one in front of us. There were two counters with sinks by the door and more lab counters extruded from the black counter top around the back two walls. They also had several sinks and valves with gas and air that could be used. There was a chemical shower to the right and several cabinets and maybe an oven with it.

I pushed the blockage forward and just as I stepped into the room, I was immediately attacked by an angry ten year old kid with a small folding knife. I saw it just in time to not get stabbed. I grabbed the kid and took the knife out of his hand and tossed it to the side. I held his wrists together as I pushed Brandon's barrel away from him.

"Don't shoot, it's Mathew!" I yelled at him. "Stop fighting, we are here to get you out of here."

"How do you know my name?" asked Mathew.

"Long story," answered Brandon.

"Are you SWAT?" Mathew asked referring to our military stye uniforms.

"Kinda, where is your sister?" Then I saw her.

She was tall at five-eleven. She had long flowing blonde hair. She was laying on the ground behind a table with a cut on her forehead right above her left eye, she wasn't moving. I let go of Mathew and walked over to her and put two fingers on her neck. She had a pulse and was breathing, but unconscious.

"Brandon, cover the door. Kid, what happened?" I calmly asked Mathew.

"I don't know. She was standing on the counter and looking out the window at these guys with parachutes coming in the distance. Then she got scared and slipped off the counter and hit her head on the corner of the table. Is she dead?" Mathew was very informative, I wished I could say the same for his sister at the moment.

"No Mathew, she's not dead. She just got knocked out that's all. We need to get out of here," I told him.

"We have a car parked in the church parking lot next to the school."

"Great! Where's the key?" I asked.

"It's in her pocket," I wasn't real comfortable reaching into some girl's pocket that I hardly knew but I did and found the keys and pulled them out.

I looked at the black vehicle key. It was to a BMW. I slipped the keys into the pouch on my chest that was for documents and pens called an administration pouch. I redid the Velcro flap and picked up Brittany and cradled her in my arms. She wasn't the lightest person, probably around one-hundred, twenty pounds.

"Brandon, your going to have to take point. Mathew, I have something for you. On my belt there is a big knife that will work against the monsters," I turned so he could see it and he pulled it out.

Every Marine is given a Ka-Bar which is a big seven inch, fixed bladed bayonet. I had copied mine in Celestial Bronze.

"You won't use it unless the monsters come to you, you hear me? You just stay right behind me, OK?"

"OK," he said.

"Let's go I can hear them coming from the catwalk," said Brandon.

We walked out the door and headed down the hallway. We had double-timed it down the hallway when we saw the other pack of monsters that had torn apart the first floor of the North side of the building starting to come up the stairs at the end of the hallway. I also heard the monsters who cleared the South side hallways coming up behind us. I immediately got on the radio:

"David, you need to start engaging Tangos on the second floor, North side towards the middle and gotta do it quick. We are getting boxed in here."

"Copy that," I heard in my headset. His rounds started coming in through the glass in the entryway. The broken glass started to crash to the floor.

We had taken cover in the entry way of two classrooms on the left, halfway to the staircase. The way the hallway was designed, the entry way to the classrooms made a small pocket that we could take cover in.

"Well, how do you wanna get out of this one?" I asked Brandon.

"How much rope do we have?" he asked. Brandon was smart but I wasn't sure what he was planning on this time.

"About a hundred, fifty feet. Why?" I asked back.

"I want to set up a repel out the window of this classroom," He said pointing his thumb to the classroom door behind us.

"What do you want to tie off to? There isn't much," I said back.

By now the monsters were coming down the hallway on both sides. I set Brittany down and started engaging monsters towards the staircase and Brandon was engaging Tangos to our rear. We both had switched to full auto and the buzz of each gun made the monsters take cover. Brass casings littered the floor.

"Throw a frag or two down the hallway!" I said while reloading.

I reached down to my left side and unclipped two of my frag pouch lids. I put a finger in both of the loops on the pins and pulled the grenades out of their respective pouches. Their Celestial Bronze coatings were glimmering in the darkness. I saw Brandon do the same thing. I put the loops in my teeth and held down the spoons with my hands. I yanked on the frags and pulled the pins out and then spit them out. I threw the frags, one in each hand, all the way down just before the stair case. BOOM! The grenades exploded and several monsters were turned to dust. Brandon waited for the monsters to get a bit closer and then threw his. BOOM! His grenades went off and turned several of the monsters to dust as well.

I opened the door to the classroom and Brandon took Mathew inside, still holding my Ka-Bar with both hands. I picked up Brittany and moved inside then laid her down next to the window. Brandon took a piece of parachute chord and a desk. He put the desk in front of the door and tied off to the door handle, essentially locking it. He turned around.

"I have an idea," he said. "I'll start cutting a hole in the tile on the floor, weakening it, then we will blow it up. The floor will fall, we jump down and bust out the window," It was crazy enough to work.

Brandon pulled out his magic, leather work gloves and slipped them onto his hands. Then he went to work on the floor, putting the tip of his finger right in between the cracks of the tile. He cut a five foot square into the tile and I worked on setting the explosive. The door was now being pounded on by the monsters trying to get in.

"I'll tell you what, Brandon. If this works, you will be forever know as MacGyver," I joked.

"Who's MacGyver?" asked Mathew. Brandon and I just laughed.


	9. Chapter 9

Big Luke

The kicker charge was set in the far corner where we were. I had moved Brittany in the opposite corner of the classroom. Brandon and Mathew were right next to me.

"OK, you ready?" Brandon asked as he held the detonator in his hand.

"Yeah blow it," I told him.

"I always wanted to say this," I started to grin. "Fire in the hole!"

He pressed down on the button and the explosive went off. BOOM! I stumbled a little from the shock. I put my hands all over my chest, all still there. I looked up and there was a nice five foot square hole in the floor.

"OK, now how do we get Brittany down?" I asked.

"I'll hand her to you from up here," He responded. I walked over to the edge of the hole and sat down, dangling my feet.

"Just another day at the office," I told myself but I guess Brandon overheard me.

"For you maybe. I'm having the time of my life!"

"That was our catch phrase in my platoon," I said. "We always had that posted in our camp and whenever some crazy plan like this actually worked we always would say 'just another day at the office' like it was meant to happen."

"You were in the Army?" asked Mathew.

"No, I'm a Marine," I chuckled.

"I thought you were SWAT?" He asked.

"Look, I'll explain it once we get out of here," I told him.

I dropped down to the first floor and stumbled on top of some pieces of rubble. I looked up, Brandon had pushed Brittany over to edge so her feet were dangling like mine were. Mathew was on the other side of the hole and dangled his feet too.

"Mathew comes first," I said. "It's good to have another set of hands down here,"

Mathew jumped down and I caught him. Mathew was short, about four-ten. He had a blue polo shirt on with horizontal narrow white stripes and blue jeans. His hair was pretty long and blonde like his sisters.

"OK, I'm sending her down," Brandon slowly lifted Brittany's unconscious self down into the hole. I grabbed her at the waist and cradled her in my arms again. Brandon jumped down and radioed to David:

"MacGyver to Hawkeye: we are preparing to exfill from-" CRASH! The door on the second floor had been busted open. Monsters started to squeeze through into the classroom. We needed to get out of there as fast as possible. I reloaded my M16.

"Cover your ears!" I yelled as I opened fire on the lowest row of windows.

We watched as the glass exploded as the rounds crashed through of it. Brandon had started to engage the monsters through the hole and monster dust started to pour on top of him.

"Go climb out the window," I pressed the button for my radio and spoke into the microphone. "Red 5 to Hawkeye be advised: Mathew is climbing out of a window on the first floor. Followed by his sister who is currently unconscious, over."

"Good copy, Red 5: Mathew and Brittany coming out on the North side, first floor," David relayed.

"Hawkeye be advised: we will be moving North to get a vehicle, over."

"Good copy, Red 5. I will exfill from my position and meet you in the parking lot, over."

"Copy your last," I said.

Brandon had squeezed Brittany out of the window and was moving out himself. I had continued firing up the hole. I walked backwards towards the window when I had tanked the mag. CLICK! I was halfway to the window when the first monster dropped to the floor, another hellhound. I turned around and sprinted for the window with the hellhound right behind me. I dove for the window when it grabbed hold of my pant leg. My face hit the floor hard. I rolled over and saw that my team mates were on their way to the car. I looked back at the hellhound and drew my 1911. I took it off safety and fired two rounds one handed, the immense recoil of the .45 made it hard to shoot fast. The rounds landed on the hellhound's face and he crumbled to dust. I reholstered the handgun, then. I stood up and jumped out the window.

I saw Brandon about twenty yards away dragging Brittany across the lawn. I got to my feet and sprinted to picked her up. We then began sprinting North to a treeline separating the school grounds from the church. I looked down at Brittany for a split second and thought I saw her eyes open just a little bit.

We broke through the treeline and looked around. The BMW was backed into a spot at the end of the parking lot. We ran up to the silver, mid-nineties sedan and I laid Brittany down on the passenger side of the vehicle. I fished out the keys and pressed the unlock button. The car's lights flashed and the horn beeped twice. Brandon opened the front door and I laid Brittany in the passenger seat and buckled her in. Mathew climbed in the back seat while Brandon covered him with his last magazine.

I closed the door and ran around to the driver side of the vehicle. I opened the door and sat in the seat. Brandon got in and closed the door. I started the Beemer's engine and put it in first. The car was a stick shift. I released the parking break, floored the throttle and dumped the clutch. The back wheels started to spin. I yanked the wheel to the left and I felt the back end slide out. I caught it with counter steering and flicking my toes on the throttle. I grabbed second as a the remaining monsters broke through the treeline. I never let up on the gas as I ran them over.

"Dude, what in all of Hades are you doing?" Brandon yelled over the whine of the BMW's engine.

"I'm trying to get us out of here," I told him as I pulled out onto the street and headed for the Elementary school.

We got up to around sixty miles an hour when I shifted back to first, yanked the wheel to the right and dumped the clutch, drifting the car into the parking lot of the school. I saw David running down towards us. I yanked the wheel to the left and pulled the parking brake and let the car come to a complete stop. Brandon opened the door and David hopped in the back.

"So, how was it?" I asked.

"Best freaking night of my life," he said. "How are we getting home?"

"Your looking at it," Brandon said. He looked like he was about to blow chunks.

"Don't worry, Brandon. I'll drive better as long as we don't run into anything else along the way," just as I said it, one last hellhound was standing at the intersection out of the parking lot.

I put my heel on the gas and my toes on the brake. I then released the clutch and the wheels began to spin on the asphalt, creating mass amounts of tire smoke that I could smell leaking into the cabin. I shifted my foot from the brake and I felt the tires grip the pavement. We shot out of that parking lot like a bat out of Hades. I turned the car away from the hellhound and we went up on the curb as we rocketed South bound. We shot past the fire house and a strip mall. Right across from that we hit an overpass. I drove the car over it with the hellhound the size of a pickup right behind us. I guess it didn't help our situation that I cut off a cop when I drifted the BMW on to the on-ramp to the freeway.

"Dude, you just cut off a cop!" yelled David. Brandon looked greener by the minute.

"Yep, been there, done that, got the T-shirt," I replied.

We rocketed down the on-ramp at ninety miles an hour and gaining. We were heading East on the freeway towards downtown with the hellhound behind us and the cop behind it. We weaved around the occasional civilian as we had jumped up to a hundred and thirty miles an hour.

"How much ammo you got, David?" I asked from the driver seat.

"I've got a half mag in the gun and one reserve. I'm also full on MP7," He replied.

"Kick out the back glass and use the trunk lid as a rest. Don't hit the cop," I instructed as I grabbed fifth gear, or top gear.

Brandon leaned forward as David swung his legs over his head and kicked out the glass. Glass shards spread all over the road and the hellhound jumped over them, the cop had to swerve to avoid losing his tires. Brandon folded down his bi-pod and took aim. I tried to hold the car as strait and steady as I could as he started to pop off rounds at the hellhound. One round hit the hellhound in the chest and another landed on his right shoulder. He started to crumble as he fell behind.

Now we just had to worry about the cop, or cops as it were at that point. About five or six chasing us. We were getting closer to downtown Portland as we came up to a tunnel that was three lanes wide. For some reason everyone in the tunnel slowed way down, making my job harder. The back wheels lost some traction as we weaved around the slowed traffic. We came out the other side to see a fork in the road. I slammed on the brake and swerved to the right. The tires squealed as we merged to another freeway.

"I need a place to stash the car. Hey Mr. Oregonian, where should we go?" I yelled back Brandon who was reaching behind him and taking off his dump pouch for his empty mags, probably to throw up in.

"Take the next exit," He said, greener than ever.

I took the next exit and we found ourselves going up a steep slope. At the top we could see houses and a couple of multistory buildings. The BMW was climbing up the hill way better than the cop's lead-like Crown Vics. I pulled ahead of them and turned right on a side street where I found a parking garage. I pulled in and drove the Beemer all the way to the top. I parked the car near one of the corners next to the street. I killed the lights and the engine and got out. I looked down the side and watched as the cops drove right passed the parking garage.

"We need to find us a place to hide out. It's only a matter of time before they come and see the car," I said to myself.

Brandon was in the corner of the top floor, puking his guts out. David was over there with him. I walked over to the passenger side of the car and opened the back door. Mathew was sitting on the drivers side with his seat belt on, twiddling his thumbs. I slid into the back seat next to him.

"Here's your knife back," He said, handing me the bayonet. I slipped it back in the sheath.

"Thanks. You doing OK?" I asked as I noticed Brandon's dump pouch sitting on the floor, he hadn't puked in it yet.

"I'm worried about my sister. Are you sure she is OK?" he asked back.

"Yeah, she's going to be just fine. Right now we need to find a hotel or something to hold up till the morning," I told him.

We got out of the car and stood next to to the driver side so we were facing Brandon and David. Brandon had finished blowing chunks and started walking back with David right next to him.

"I think he got it all out," announced David.

"Remind me to never get in a car or any motor vehicle with you at the wheel," moaned Brandon.

"Not a chance," I said and David laughed. "You know where there are any hotels around here, Brandon?"

"There is not much, but there is a hostel on Glisan. It's a bit of a walk from here but manageable," he said with one hand on his stomach.

"How many blocks?" I asked, the one guy who had to carry another human being.

"Around ten."

"Na, we're driving. Get back in the car," I said and we all got back in the car.

I started the BMW and backed out of the parking space. I stuck the car in first and drove the car round and round, down to the bottom of the parking garage and got on Glisan. I drove at the speed limit as not to draw attention from the police. It was hard since I asked David to kick out the glass.

The ride was pretty quiet, no one spoke as they winded down from the operation. As I drove, I looked over at Brittany who had started to wake up a little bit. Her eyes were open and she had shifted into a fetal like position in the seat.

"Thank you," she whispered. I just nodded my head.

I parked the car a few blocks from the hostel.

"Take your gear off in the car, I got a duffel here to put it in. We are going low-pro, boys," I told Brandon and David as I fished out my duffel from a utility pouch on my left side next to my grenades.

The duffel rolls up real small when you don't need it but get's pretty big when you do. I pulled up the Velcro flaps on my plate carrier and took the left side of the cummerbund off the stomach. I lifted the vest off my shoulders and instantly felt relief. That thing weighed forty pounds without the weight of the guns, and I was sweating puddles under it. I unfolded the duffel and laid the plate carrier into it along with my M16. I took my BDU top off and folded it up too, revealing my orange camp shirt. I had set my helmet on the dash when I got into the car the second time. I picked it up and laid it in the bag. At this point, the duffel was about a quarter full.

"You guys ready to put your stuff in here?" I said as I put the duffel on Brandon's lap who had all his gear folded neatly. David on the other hand, had all his gear wadded up in a ball. The difference between the two kids were night and day, Brandon was very cool and collected where David was very outgoing and ready for anything.

They put their gear in the bag and we got out of the car. I walked around to the passenger side and opened Brittany's door. She swung her legs out on to the ground and tried to stand up. She was almost vertical when she passed out and fell over. I caught her and she looked up. Her eyes were bright blue and her face was flawless, minus the gash over her eye, defiantly a spawn of Aphrodite.

"You're short," she told me.

"You're delusional," I said.

I put her arm over my shoulders and we tried to walk. She stumbled a little and I caught her.

"Is she OK?" asked Mathew worriedly.

"Yeah, she's fine. She might have a concussion though," I told him. I picked her up in my arms yet again. I got real uncomfortable when she put her arms around my neck.

We walked the remaining couple blocks to the hostel and I set Brittany down and she stood next to me. I fished out my wallet and pulled out three-hundred dollars.

"We will wait out here. David, I want you to go in there and wave this in front of the person at the front desks face and tell him we need a dorm room to ourselves, all five of us. OK?" David nodded and walked inside with my money.

"We are going to need to get some regular clothes tomorrow. Camo pants and orange T-shirts aren't exactly low-profile," said Brandon.

"Yeah and that was my last three-hundred bucks. I'll have to go to the bank, too," I replied.

"Where do you get the money?" asked Brandon.

"Uncle Sam keeps sending me a check every month. It isn't much but it should be enough to get us home."

"How do you propose we get home? We can't really get on a plane with six guns and three full kits," Brandon said.

"Yeah and all my connections are busy for a month. The Beemer is definitely tagged by law enforcement."

"So, we need a new car," said Brittany, the first full sentence she said all night.

David walked out the front door and told us to come inside. We walked up the white steps to the front door. We walked inside and there was an old lady at the front desk and when she saw me carrying Brittany, she gave us a funny look.

"We just got back from our wedding!" exclaimed Brittany as she kissed me on the cheek which made me blush redder than a lobster with a sunburn.

"Yeah and it was put on by the military," said Brandon trying to sell the lie while trying not to laugh in the process.

The old lady just shrugged and mumbled something under her breath along the lines of: "Kids these days."

The lobby consisted of the front desk and a few couches. The room was a triangular shape that split off in one corner to a computer room with a printer and a few desktops. There was also a coffee bar. To the back was a staircase that went up three floors for a total of four. And of course the only dorm that was empty was on the other side of the building and on the fourth flour. Brittany still couldn't walk right so I was forced to carry her all the way to the dorm.

The dorm was three rooms, one bathroom and two rooms with red lockers and two sets of bunk beds in each. I laid Brittany down on one of the bottom racks and walked over to the other side to the other bunk and climbed up to the top. The bed was firm but comfortable. I laid there looking up at the ceiling when Brandon walked up next to the rack.

"You think we did good today?" he asked.

"Yeah. We infiltrated a school and rescued two demigods. The only casualties we took were the car since we can't drive it, and your lunch. So, yeah, I'd say we did all right," He chuckled at the joke and climbed on a bunk in the other room.

David was already passed out in the middle of the floor on top of our gear bag. I guess he was tired and I could see why, the adrenaline from skydiving and manning a sniper rifle on a covert-gone-overt mission tuckered him out. Mathew grabbed the rack above his sisters and quickly fell asleep.

_All in a good day's work_, I thought as I drifted to sleep.


	10. Chapter 10

David

I slept like a baby that night. No freaky dreams even though I slept on top of our gear bag. I wasn't really sure how I got there, I just remembered walking into the dorm and seeing Brandon walking into the other room. Then I was out like a light. I woke up listening to someone in the shower. I lifted my head off the bag and looked around and saw that everyone was still asleep except for Brittany. Apparently she was feeling better than she had the night before.

I got up off the bag and opened it up. I pulled out my MP7 and took the mag out and set it down. I pulled the charging handle back, spilling the unused round. I hadn't used it at all last night, and I was beginning to wonder if I was ever going to use it. I like the MP7, it was light weight and had very little recoil with the suppressor attached to the muzzle. It was very quiet as well.

I set the weapon down and picked up Big Luke's M16. The thing weighed a ton, it even weighed more than my M110 sniper rifle. He had to take the suppressor off just to put it in the bag. Since our training over the past six weeks, Big Luke had put a flashlight mounted to the right side of his RIS. The flashlight was attached using a mount that swiveled in five positions. Right now it was set strait down so he could operate the button on the back with his thumb.

That gun was beat to Hell, the paint had been scratched off in several places on the receiver and the barrel. It looked like it was run over by a truck.

"It doesn't look like much but it's a fine weapon. Wouldn't trade it for anything," said Big Luke who had heard me racking the slide on the MP7. He was now grinning at me from the top bunk and still had a lot of sleep in his eyes. "Who's in the shower?"

"Brittany. I think she's doing a bit better than she was last night," I replied.

"That's what worries me. I think she may have hero syndrome. It's happened to me before and it sucks," he told me.

"OK, I gotta here this. What is it and when did it happen to you?" I looked at Mathew who was still fast asleep. I heard Brandon get off his bunk and walk into the room.

"Yeah, me too," he said with a grin on his face.

"OK, fine," Big Luke began. "We were stationed outside Jerusalem and we got a call from the Israeli police. Said they needed our help since most of the available men were out fighting terrorism. An Iraqi man had made his way into the city and was holding his two wives and his only daughter hostage at bomb point. The guy had a suicide vest on and was threatening to blow everyone up. We go to get in the trucks and our point man trips and puts his face right on the step of the truck. He broke his nose and our sergeant told me that I was going to be point man on this operation.

We finally arrive at the apartment building in downtown Jerusalem," Big Luke continued. "The mission was to breach the door and take this guy out while the Israeli who was talking him down had his attention. Classic slide of hand, you don't see what's happening over here when your looking over there," he held out his hands and shook one on "here" and the other on "there" to demonstrate the point. "When the guy in front of me, the door man, opened the door with a battering ram, I stepped inside the room and put one round under his chin and one right on the bridge of his nose. Separating his brain from the rest of his body. No twitches that could set off the bomb. At least that's what the coroner told me. Anyway, afterward, his daughter runs up to me and lays a big, fat kiss on my lips in front of God and everybody for at least five seconds. It was bad. We called it 'hero syndrome' because she felt like she owed me for saving her life."

"Wow, your that good of a shot? And yet you forgot to chamber a round when you went into the school," bragged Brandon.

"Yeah well, I got real lucky I guess. And don't forget, your chamber was empty too," We all laughed.

The laughing came to a halt when we heard the water in the shower turn off. Mathew had woken up and was looking around the room, also still very tired.

"Where's my sister?" he asked groggily.

"She's just getting out of the shower," I told him.

"That's good. You guys should have been there two nights ago when she showered in the science class with the chemical shower. That was weird, I couldn't look at the right side of the classroom for forty-five minutes!" he complained.

"Did she always shower while you guys were on the run?" asked Big Luke.

"Most of the time there was no shower. But when there was she didn't really think about it. I guess," replied Mathew. I looked at Big Luke and he sighed, another sign of what he feared most about Brittany, _hero syndrome_.

The bathroom was located right next to the door going out to the hallway. When she walked into the room, she was fully dressed but had a towel on her head to dry her hair. She had a red T-shirt and a pair of slightly faded jeans. She was barefoot but I could see two sneakers by her bunk and short white socks with pink toes laying on top of them.

"You look like your doing better. How are you feeling?" asked Big Luke.

"Huh? Yeah, fine," she answered trying to get the water out of her ears with the towel.

"No lightheadedness or dizziness?" asked Brandon.

"Hmm. Nope, the good nights sleep had done he trick," the towel was covering up the gash on her forehead.

She sat down on her bunk and leaned over so her hair cleared the bunk. She had her elbows on her knees as she pulled them in tight to her body.

"What are you guys starring at?" she asked.

"Huh? Oh, nothing," we all said trying to find something else in the room to stare at.

Big Luke hopped out of bed over the rail and walked in the bathroom. We had toiletries in our kits because we were prepared to be out for more than one night. However, we did not expect to be left without a ride. Big Luke started to brush his teeth. I was still on the floor by the gear bag. I felt awkward and stood up.

"Did you sleep on that all night?" asked Mathew.

"I guess I did. Did you sleep on that all night?" I responded.

"Yeah?" he said. I was never good with kids, I always seemed to creep them out.

Big Luke walked back into the room while putting his toothbrush back in the little plastic container he stored it in. He knelt down next to the open bag and dug out his plate carrier. He flipped it over so the back was facing up exposing the crowbar, his backpack, radio, the scabbard with the Mossberg 590 shotgun and a first-aid kit. He ripped it away from the Velcro backing that was attached to the vest itself. He unfolded the pouch exposing several medical tools and other first-aid supplies. He pulled out a plastic bag that had some ambrosia, or food of the gods that was used by demigods to kick-start the healing process. He opened it up and broke off a piece and handed it to Brittany.

"Eat that," He told Brittany. She did and her face puckered up.

"It tastes like sour candy!" she exclaimed.

"It tastes different for everybody. For me, it tastes like black liquorice," Big Luke said.

"I always taste chocolate cake," said David.

"I seem to taste butterscotch. Most of the time it's some kind of sweets that the person eating it likes," said Brandon.

"If you don't want it. I can do first-aid the old fashion way with alcohol and some gauze," said Big Luke.

"No, I love sour candy. It reminds me of the jokes my dad always played on us," Then her happy expression turned sad. "I miss my dad."

"My mom's dead. She was murdered by my step-dad. I know what it's like to miss someone," Big Luke did his best to try to comfort her. In reality, there is no way to comfort someone when the are stripped from a parent.

"I'm so sorry. Did your step-dad go to prison?" Brittany asked.

"No, he basically fell off the face of the Earth. When I find him, though, I'm going to kill him myself," He responded.

I felt that in the six weeks that I spent around Big Luke, this was the first time that he really opened up. I never knew that his past was so screwed up.

"I'd like to get out of here ASAP. I'm going to go down and get some coffee. I'll meet you guys down there." He got up and walked out through the door.

"I should go with him," suggested Brittany.

"NO!" Brandon and I exclaimed at the same time.

"He just needs to be by himself for a bit. That's the first time he ever opened up like that to us. That was probably the first time he ever opened up like that to anyone. We'll get our stuff ready and head down to meet him. That will give him a couple minutes to get his emotions together," explained Brandon.

So we did. I repacked the bag and slung it over my shoulder. Brandon, Mathew and Brittany all put there shoes on. Mine were already on since I passed out on the bag, shoes and all. Brandon and I both brushed our teeth since the bathroom had two sinks. Then we left, I was the last one out and I checked to see if we had left anything behind.

We walked back down the hallway and down the stairs. I had the room key in my pocket and I dropped it off at the front desk in front of a pimple-faced teenager. I then caught up with the others who were walking towards Big Luke at the coffee bar. He was watching the local news on a flat-screen in one corner, the Sheriff was on the screen giving everyone a description of the BMW we were driving last night. I could see the BMW racing in and out of traffic.

"You guys ready?" he asked finishing his cup of Joe.

"Yeah, are you?" I asked. He nodded and we walked out of the hostel.

We walked around the city of Portland and tried to find a First-tech Credit Union. Apparently, there isn't that many and that's what the Marine's money was in. We finally found one and we stopped outside for a quick second.

"You guys can stay out here or go in. It's up to you," said Big Luke.

I set down the bag and went inside. Brandon stayed outside with Mathew however Brittany walked in right behind me.

We all nodded hello to the guy at the front desk as we walked in. The line wasn't terribly long so we waited in line.

"You don't have an ATM card?" asked Brittany.

"We never had an ATM on base so it wasn't necessary. I've gotten by with waiting in line," he responded.

Brittany apparently didn't like that answer so she walked back over to the guy at the front desk and asked to get Big Luke an ATM card. Big Luke and I just looked over at her.

"What is she doing?" I asked.

"I don't know," he responded.

"Are you going to ask her?"

"No. Hell hath no furry like woman scorned," he said with a smile.

Brittany walked back over with a kind of grumpy look on her face.

"What's your name?" she asked Big Luke.

"Put down Big Luke," he said.

"Big Luke?" she said with a puzzled face. "That's your name?"

"It's what I go by," he said.

She walked away with a sharp "Hmm" and walked over and wrote the name down on the waiting sheet. It looked like she wrote it high on the paper. She walked back in line next to Big Luke. We waited in line for a minute when she said:

"You know we don't have to stand in line anymore. We can go sit down," Then we turned around and went to sit on the couches by the front desk.

I sat on one couch while Brittany sat down next to Big Luke. A small lady in a black business suit walked over to the clip board and read the next line on it.

"Uh, Big Luke," she called and Big Luke stood up. "Wow, you weren't kidding," she said and Big Luke just nodded his head.

She guided us over to a large wooden desk with a Windows computer and a desk mat with a full year calender on it.

"So, what can I do for you today?" she asked. She looked Indian in ethnicity and spoke with a similar accent.

"You got to ask her. I'm not sure," answered Big Luke pointing at Brittany.

"This man doesn't have an ATM card. We are here to get him one," said Brittany.

"OK, can I have the name on the account or the account number?" she asked.

"The name is Jon Luke Richards. I've forgotten the account number years ago," said Big Luke.

"OK, I'll go in the back and whip that up for you. OK?" she said the word "OK" too much.

She stood up and went through a door and stayed there for a good five to eight minutes. Big Luke leaned over to me and said:

"I haven't even bought her dinner yet and she's already trying to change me."

"I'm just glad it's you and not me," I replied.

"What was that?" asked Brittany.

"Hmm? Oh, nothing," replied Big Luke.

The lady in the black business attire came back and laid a brand new teal colored ATM card.

"There you go. Now we just need you to sign here and print here," she laid a piece of paper with two places to sign. "When your done, you will have to go over there to the ATM and make a transaction. That will activate the card." she explained.

Big Luke signed it in a really slow cursive style. You could tell that he didn't do it much. When I looked up the Indian lady was gone and what had replaced her was a Telekhine in the same black business suit.

"Now, you will die! Have a nice day!" she said as she stood up and jumped over the desk at me.

I tried to jump back but the chair I was sitting in got in my way and I fell back hard on the tile floor. Big Luke had stood right up and tried to go for his 1911. When he realized that he left it in the gear bag he punched the Telekhine in the face. It must have been a strange sight for the people in the bank, since they probably didn't see what we saw. We were weapon-less for a moment. Big Luke left both his knife and his 1911 in the bag. Then I realized I still had my bow. I took it off my back and nocked an arrow. Just a standard arrow but I figured I might need a smoke arrow to get us out of here.

I aimed for the Telekhine's throat and I let it fly. She ducked and the arrow bounced off the window behind her. I _never_ miss! Big Luke had ran over and started to activate his card. It wasn't the best time but I guess we needed the money. Brittany was standing over there with him. Telling him to "Hurry up!" and "Come on!". I never really liked Aphrodite girls, they always rejected me or stood me up, no one ever stuck with it.

The Telekhine started to charge me and I hit her over the head with the cam of my bow and stood up. She fell to the ground next to me and I nocked another arrow. I put the arrow head on her back and released it. When I opened my eyes the arrow was impaled into the tile and surrounded by the Telekhine's dust. Big Luke had finished at the ATM after much swearing and beating on the machine. I nocked a smoke arrow and looked at Big Luke.

"Do it. Let's get out of here," he said and I shot the arrow at the ground and we ran outside through the smoke.

"What happened?" asked Brandon.

"You didn't see or hear that?" I asked coughing from the smoke.

"We'll explain later lets go," commanded Big Luke.

We ran for several blocks and hid in an alleyway. It was long and kind of shaded.

"So, how can you guys kill them but we can't? I stabbed one with a fork and it went right through! And why can't anyone see them?" asked Brittany trying to catch her breath.

I had realized that no one told them that they were demigods. We also knew that if they knew who they really were the monster thing was going to get a whole lot worse.

"Brandon, David, we need to huddle up for a brief moment," said Big Luke who was also breathing heavily.

Brandon set the bag down and we stepped further into the alley and stood in a circle. We were so far back that we were right next to the brick wall at the end.

"Should we tell them they're demigods?" asked Big Luke.

"If we do the monsters are going to come at us ten times more. And we are really running low on ammo," said Brandon.

"We can get ammo, just not the kind that will kill these things. I'm afraid if we don't tell them, they might run off, " said Big Luke.

"I've got my bow, you got a knife. You got your gloves, can we maybe see if Chiron can send us some supplies?" I asked.

"We might be able too since he is not technically the Camp Director with that new guy there," said Big Luke.

"OK, no more huddle. What are you guys talking about? Why won't you answer my questions?" demanded Brittany.

We broke our huddle and walked back over. It was decision time for Big Luke, do we tell them or do we not. He decided to tell them.

"As for the monsters, it takes a certain kind of metal for them to die. Well, technically, they don't die they just go to this place and reform. When their good and ready, they come back. As for other people, they can't see them because they cant see through the Mist. The Mist is this magic veil that keeps regular mortals from seeing the things we see," answered Big Luke.

"That's it. You guys are crazy," she said and stormed off, her brother hot on her heels.

"That's exactly what I didn't want to happen," said Big Luke as he ran after her.

She had made it just outside the alleyway when Big Luke picked her up at the waist and started to carry her back into the alley. We ran up to help.

"No! Let me go!" she screamed as she pounded uselessly on his harms. People started to stare.

"Just a new married couple affair. Don't mind us!" lied Brandon. He was still going with that charade, I guess.

"OK, look. How much do you know about Greek Mythology?" I asked.

"You mean like those gods and Hercules and stuff?" she said.

"Yeah well they're real. Your mom wasn't around much when you were growing up right?" I asked.

"She was never around. I think I met her once when she came back for a day when I was nine. Then she left and a little while later we found baby Mathew on the front step with a note that said 'he's yours'. I hated her for that. My dad was struggling with one kid to support as it was. He had thought she was back for good at that point, but then she left again," she explained as she started to cry.

"Brittany, your mom is the goddess Aphrodite. The goddess of love and hotness," said Big Luke. I wouldn't have put it that way but he was making her feel better. A little too much better.

"You think I'm hot?" she asked him as she sniffled.

Big Luke's eyes widened as he began to blush again after he realized what he had done. He looked at me for help. I just looked at him like _Now you've done it. _Thankfully Mathew helped him out.

"Ewe, gross. Can we talk about this some other time when I'm not around?" he complained.

"That's a great idea Mathew!" Big Luke exclaimed. "Will you excuse me I need to go make a call," and he was gone.

He went back towards the back of the alley where there was a small rainbow where the sprinkler behind the wall was hitting the sun.

"So, who is your guys' parents?" asked Brittany.

"My dad is Apollo, god of the sun and poetry," I said.

"I'm a son of Athena, goddess of wisdom. Big Luke is a son of Hephaestus, god of the Forge," said Brandon.

"I thought he'd be the war god's kid or something. Seeing how many guns he's got," said Brittany.

"No, actually he got in a fight with a couple Ares kids once and won against all three of them. Most kids like us make their way to a place back East called Camp Half-Blood. He ended up joining the Marine Corps instead. When he got back, his grandparents house was overrun and he fled North and made it to the camp," I said.

Meanwhile, Big Luke was making the Iris message to Chiron. I don't think it was going all that well since it was a very short call. I could see Chiron on the other end of the window with a concerned look on his face. His horse lower half was out of view. Chiron is a Centaur, half man and half horse.

"Well, we didn't get any ammo, or a ride for that matter. But we did these four bricks of Celestial Bronze to play with," he said carrying four bricks of the godly material.


	11. Chapter 11

Brandon

I was glad that Chiron was able to give us some Celestial Bronze. I had grown attached to my MP5 and my M9. Both were fantastic weapons and now I would be able to use them again. I was nervous that Brittany was getting so attached to Big Luke, however. Nothing good could come from it, not with the war we were in. Don't get me wrong, they seemed like they would be a great couple and it was fun to use that charade.

"We still need to get out of these clothes," said David. "How much money did you get?"

"I was only able to pull out five-hundred bucks," he said. "It should be able to get us some clothes and some gear, but we are still left without a ride."

"Where can we get clothes?" said David, looking at me like I was some kind of expert, which I was.

"I know there is a Atlanco distributor in this city somewhere," said Big Luke.

"Who? No you want some place with Hollister stuff. I've never even heard of that brand that you said," said Brittany.

"Na, I ain't wearing none of that yuppy crap," Big Luke responded.

"What do you mean yuppy? That is a name brand!" Yep, they were the perfect couple.

"Look, I know where we can go to get some cloths but we need to cross the river," the city of Portland is split by the Willamette river. "So, we could really be using a car right now."

"I can do that. Where is the nearest car dealership?" said Brittany.

"Are you saying that we steel a car?" I asked.

"No! I'll just ask for one. It usually works," Brittany had Charmspeak, so she could do stuff like that. It was only given to some kids of Aphrodite.

"Whatever we get, make it a Ford," said Big Luke. "Probably a truck, crew cab. F-150 is the most popular car in the world. Nothing blends in more like 'most popular'." he requested.

"There's a Ford dealership a few blocks over. We could go there," I said.

We walked all the way to the Ford dealership and instantly Big Luke fell in love with a lifted F-250 crew cab. It was a later model but it had a couple dents and scratches. He said they "add character". It was navy blue and had black rims with big mud-terrain tires.

"You just said that we need to blend in!" I told him.

"Yeah, but then I saw this truck," he replied.

We kept looking around. Brittany saw a Mustang convertible that she really liked. We instantly shot that down, not enough room. I liked the Taurus but Big Luke was really dead set on a truck. We came all the way down to the end of the line to see the plainest F-150 available. It was a 2004 Super Cab with a five foot box and a tonneau cover so you couldn't see inside of it. It was black with chrome bumpers. It sat at the stock ride height and factory wheels.

"Can we all agree on this one?" asked David who wasn't picky, at all.

"I can live with it. It's four wheel drive," said Big Luke.

"It's got leather interior and a moon roof," said Brittany.

"It's got four wheels and probably runs," I said. "It works for me."

"How can I help you kids?" a salesman in probably his early thirties walked up to us.

He was pretty over weight and was a few inches shorter than Big Luke. He had a five o' clock shadow and a mustard stain on his shirt from lunch. Which reminded me that we hadn't had eaten anything since we had woken up that morning.

"How much for this F-150 right here?" asked Big Luke slapping the side rails on the bed of the truck.

"We want about twenty for it. Nothing down and zero percent APR until January," the salesman answered.

"How many miles does it have on it?" It was a back and forth conversation, Big Luke would ask and the guy would answer.

"Not much like, 17,000. I think."

"All the windows still work and the brakes are still good?"

"Yeah, everything works."

"What's it got under the hood?"

"Go ahead and pop it," Big Luke took the opportunity and opened the door.

He pulled the lever and the hood on the truck popped up a little bit. Big Luke walked over to the grill and started fishing around for the latch. He found it and lifted the hood all the way up. He looked in and around the engine compartment.

"It's supercharged. 5.4 liter V8. But you got the factory exhaust. You got your self a sleeper," said Big Luke.

"Yeah, she's got a little power," said the salesman.

"When was the last time the oil had been changed?" Big Luke was smart when it came to picking out cars. He knew what to ask the salesman, even when the salesman couldn't answer back.

"I think it went through one of our Ford certified pre-owned tests and passed with flying colors. They always change the oil before they put it on the lot. I see you were in the military, what branch did you serve?" the salesman had noticed Big Luke's dog tags hanging out of his shirt.

"I'm a Marine," he replied.

"Yeah, I was in the Army my self in the first gulf war. Special Forces," he said. I could tell by the way he talked that he was lying. He never served with Special Forces in the kind of shape he was in. You could see it on Big Luke's face that he was disgusted by it.

"OK. So, do you think you can just give us this fine truck, Mr. Sales-man? Please," asked Brittany, putting more emphases on the "man" part of "salesman".

Immediately the salesman's eyes went wide on Brittany as she leaned her body against the bed of the truck and lifted one sneaker. Big Luke was on the other side of the truck on the ground looking at something on the undercarriage of the truck. He was trying to avoid the Charmspeak as much as he could by checking to see if the drive line was straight, or at least he was trying to look like he was. There was no doubt that she was good at it, David was even drooling a little. Mathew had walked around to the other end of the truck and was checking it out with Big Luke. I could hear Big Luke explaining all of the parts of the vehicle to Mathew.

The salesman's brain was mush at that point. I had to snap my fingers in front of his face to get him to focus.

"Huh? Uh, yeah sure," he handed Brittany the keys and we all climbed in. Before I got in I tossed the gear bag in the bed and climbed in the back seat with Mathew in the middle and David on the driver side. Big Luke was in the driver seat as he flipped down the arm rest, separating him and Brittany. She handed him the key and he started the engine which roared to life. He moved the shifter on the column into Drive and headed for the exit of the car lot.

The interior of the pickup was a lot bigger than the BMW's that we had driven the night before. I could stretch out my legs more and there was more space between me and Mathew next to me. We headed for the bridge that crossed the Willamette river. We then drove around until we found a little place called Andy and Bax. It was a military surplus and camping supply store on Grand. We parked the truck on the side of the street outside the store.

"We are going in there?" asked Brittany.

"Do you want to wait here? Brandon and I can go in and David can stay here with you and Mathew," said Big Luke.

"Can you stay?" she begged him in return.

"No. He needs to pay. And besides, David has the most firepower here. If anything happens he's your best bet," I said.

"Is that OK with you David?" asked Big Luke.

"Yeah, it's fine. I'll go get my gun," He said as he opened the door and walked to the back of the truck.

"OK, you remember his pant size?" Big Luke asked me.

"Why would he know that?" asked Mathew.

"Long story short, we needed to order some clothes for our ops. And I ordered them," explained Big Luke.

David had come back trying to walk as discretely as he could while carrying a sub-machine gun. He opened the driver's door and Big Luke stepped out. David got in and laid his MP7 on the floor in between him and Brittany.

"Make sure it's cocked and locked," I said as I opened the door.

"Ready to rock," he returned with a grin.

We walked up to the door and went inside and instantly headed for the clothing section. They had everything we would ever need. I picked out some jeans and a black rain coat. Being an Oregonian I know that it rains there a lot, and it's a good thing to have a rain coat. I had also grabbed a pair of low-top hiking boots. They were a good replacement for the six-inch combat boots I was wearing. Big Luke grabbed a pair of khaki cargo pants and a navy blue button up, long sleeve shirt. The shirt was all triple stitched and had two pockets. He also grabbed a tight, moisture wicking undershirt. We got David a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt. The only thing we found in his size in the way of shoes were a pair of tennis shoes. Then it was on to the camping supplies.

Big Luke found a acoustic guitar that was pretty cheap so he picked it up. We also grabbed five sleeping bags, one was a youth size for Mathew and two, E-Z Up shelters. We got a bunch of other stuff including MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat), a dutch oven, a few bundles of firewood, and a big, ten-gallon water container. We had so much stuff that we needed two shopping carts. We got all the stuff and we came in with a little more than two-hundred dollars left. We went back and changed in the dressing room and came out and loaded it all up in the bed of the truck. All the weight didn't even phase the suspension.

We got back in the truck, David got out so Big Luke could drive and before he started the truck he turned around to all of us and said:

"Where do you guys want to eat? I'm starving."

"There is a McDonald's up on the corner," I suggested.

"That sound good to everyone?" asked Big Luke.

We were all so hungry that it didn't matter. So we drove up to the menu in the drive-through. Big Luke rolled down his window and told them our order.

"Five cheese burger meals with Coke's," he said in the microphone and we could see on the screen the meals popping up.

"That will be $25.50 dollars at the window, thank you," the voice from the box said.

We pulled up and Big Luke handed the lady at the window two twenties. It was after the lunch rush by then and she looked tired so Big Luke said:

"Keep the change," as we pulled up the food was already in the bag and ready to be picked up.

Big Luke took the bag and he parked the truck in the McDonald's parking lot. We each took our burger and commenced to the devouring of the meal. It felt good to finally get some food in my stomach especially after throwing up my dinner. At some point during the meal the binge had slowed. Brittany looked at Big Luke.

"So, out of everything that you could have bought with five-hundred dollars, you got that," said Brittany pointing to Big Luke's shirt that was now tucked in.

He had put his pistol belt through the belt loops. He had let the pants cover the tops of his combat boots which where now black and still shiny rather than tan ones that were all scratched up that he had the first day I met him. He had laid a napkin on his right thigh and was now sipping at his Coke.

"What's wrong with it?" he asked.

"It's just so business like. It's too normal. Not something a Marine would wear," she replied.

"I thought that was the point. If you think this is something a Marine wouldn't wear, you should of seen me before I ever enlisted. This shirt wouldn't be tucked in and the sleeves would have been torn off. These pants would be jeans and covered with motor oil," He said.

"Where did you come from? Originally, before you made it to this camp that they told me about," she asked.

"I grew up on the Louisiana bayou," he said the word "Louisiana" like "Loosiana". "My great grandfather was a Marine and my grandfather catched craw fish for a living. I lived with my mom until that night. While I stayed with her, I used to run shine for this guy, a family friend. He was a father figure of sorts. He taught me everything I know about driving and hunting. He was the one that taught me how to shoot too," He took another sip of his Coke. "I was his still hand when I was twelve and when I had gotten my learners permit at fifteen. He had me run the moonshine."

"What happened that night? Was that the night you left?" I asked.

"Yeah, it was the night I signed the recruitment papers. My mom and my step-dad were fighting. My stepbrother, was out that night partying or what ever the Hell he did. I was on the couch watching TV when that piece of, you-know-what hit my mom. I came at him and he put me on my, butt," You could tell that he was going to swear but tried to keep it to a minimum with Mathew in the car. "I ran all the way to the recruitment office and when I had come back, the whole house was covered with crime scene tape. They told me that my mom had been murdered, shot in the head. They didn't know who did it. I told them that it was my step-dad but his son told the cops that he couldn't of done it and gave a bull alibi. Then they both fell off the face of the Earth, I never saw them again. I went to go live with my grandparents until I went to basic training."

"Wow. I am so sorry," said Brittany

"Yeah, well. I want to get out of this city before dark," He said as he put his Coke in the cup holder and started the truck. He put it in Drive and we headed for the freeway.

We took the freeway all the way just outside outside of La Grande, Oregon. We found a little campground and Big Luke backed the truck into our spot. The trip was long and it was dark. Brittany and David fell asleep in the truck so Big Luke, Mathew and I set up the tents and sleeping bags. The tents were not like normal tents they were more of a coned roof that was suspended in the air by four poles that extended

I walked over the the passenger side of the vehicle and opened the front door. Brittany was fast asleep in the seat. I shook her shoulder and she opened her eyes.

"Hey, we made it to a camp ground. We set up the tents and sleeping bags. Big Luke's starting a fire now," I told her and she sighed heavily as she stepped out of the truck. I closed the door behind her as she stood up. Brittany was tall, she was at least two inches taller than me and I didn't really like it. She walked over to a sleeping bag under a covering and sat down and watched Big Luke start the fire. I opened the back passenger side door and tossed a flashbang in David's lap. He woke up instantly.

"Oh, shit!" He exclaimed as he threw the flashbang back at me. I just laughed. I hadn't pulled the pin on it so it wouldn't go off.

"Come on. We got camp set up already," I told him as I walked away.

"That wasn't cool!" he yelled in return as he rolled out of the truck.

We walked over and Big Luke had gotten the fire going. He had taken out the dutch oven, the butane torch, some boxes of ammo that we had picked up on our way outside of Portland and the four bricks of Celestial Bronze. He had put the cast-iron dutch oven and let it heat up.

"What are you doing?" asked David.

"I'm going to see if I can melt down these bricks and see about re-casing these rounds. I probably wont do them all but I'll do enough to fill our mags. You guys should probably get some sleep and I'll keep watch for a bit," he told us.

Mathew was all ready asleep in his bag. Brittany moved her bag next to Big Luke and was sitting on top of it. She laid on top of the bag because it was pretty warm next to the fire. David and I did the same on the other side of the fire. As soon as I was horizontal I fell asleep.


	12. Chapter 12

Big Luke

I stayed up long enough to re-case all of the rounds we needed to fill our mags and then I went to sleep. It was a bit weird that Brittany decided to put her bag right next to mine. If she knew who I really was, she'd probably hate me.

In my dream that night, Luke Castellan had brought me to an old abandoned office building. We were standing outside on the street in dream form.

"So, they gave you your own Strike Team, huh? They must really trust you," his scar crinkled as he grinned at me and I could tell that he was planning something.

"What do you want, Castellan? Where are we?" I demanded.

I didn't want him to know about Brandon and David, I had built a pretty good friendship with them and I wasn't ready to tell him about it.

"I don't think you're one of us Jon," I hated it when he calls me that, John was my step-dads name. "I think you need to prove your loyalty to Kronos. I want you to bring them here, in beautiful downtown La Grande. I know you joined us on the promise that we will help you find the man that killed your mom. I want to give you one better," he said.

"What is that?" I asked.

"I will bring back your mom," That took me off guard.

I never was able to say goodbye to her. This would mean that I would never have to. It'd be just like old times. She would have been proud of me for joining the Marine Corps.

"What are you going to do to them?" I asked.

"I wouldn't worry about that. Just focus on getting your mom back," He told me.

"I can't just take them to this place and tell them to go inside. They will see it coming a mile away!" I explained.

"Don't worry about that. We are working on a reason for you as we speak," he said as he waved his hand and I sat bolt up right on top of my sleeping bag.

I looked around. It was morning and Brandon and David were still sleeping. I turned around and saw that Brittany was missing. I ran over to Mathew's sleeping bag and found that he was gone too. I was pissed, we had worked so hard to get where we were and now we had to start all over again.

"Guy's, get up!" I yelled at Brandon and David and they woke up groggily.

"What?" they said at the same time. Then they looked around and found what I found and woke up a bit more.

"Where did they go? I didn't here them cry out or anything," said David.

"Yeah, me neither!" said Brandon.

"What if a band of Luke's soldiers came through here last night and took them with them," I said trying to look and sound convincing.

"How would they have found us?" asked David. I stumbled for a second.

"Uh, did we check for a cell phone on one of them? They probably traced them through that," It was a believable lie. Demigods at camp couldn't have cell phones because it was like putting a billboard over your head telling all the monsters in the area where you were.

"I suppose it's possible. If it was them, they couldn't have gone far. How late were you up last night?" asked Brandon.

"I don't know, probably around 1 am or so," I said.

"Well, I think Brandon's right, they couldn't have gotten far. Where should we start looking?" asked David.

"I say we go back to Pendleton or we try La Grande," said Brandon.

"I think Pendleton would be the best place to start. It's going backwards on our trip, a place we've all ready been," I said.

I wasn't sure what they were going to do to Brittany or Mathew. I didn't want them to get hurt, they were innocent. I felt bad. It was all my fault, not just falling sleep but from years back. I should never of left that night. I should have stayed and protected my mom. I probably would have been killed that night as well, but it would have been better than living and knowing that my mom's death was my fault. That's why I consider becoming a Marine, for me, was bitter sweet. I wouldn't have been able to protect my mom if I had stayed, but since I joined, I now had the skills to take on my step-dad, I would be able to kill him now.

"If I was them, I'd have paid mercenaries take them wherever they took them. That means regular mortals," said David.

"Let's break camp and head for Pendleton," I said.

I walked over to the truck and pulled out our gear bag. I unzipped the bag and pulled out my 1911 and my Ka-Bar. I didn't want to be stuck without them again. Breaking camp was easy, we wanted to get going as soon as possible so we tossed the bags and the folded E-Z Ups in the bed of the truck and drove out. We headed for Pendleton which we had passed through on our way to the campground. There we got gas and more ammo. In the truck, David was sitting in the back and Brandon was sitting in the passenger seat. David had his MP7 right next to him. He was wearing the sweatshirt we got him but he never changed his pants. Brandon was wearing his raincoat which hid his M9 that was holstered under it. He had taken the suppressor off so it wouldn't stick out so far.

"You guys might want to load a couple mags up with standard ammunition. I got a bad feeling that you might be right, David," I said.

I had a couple magazines that were loaded up with standard ammo on my left hip. All the mags that were loaded with Celestial Bronze were mounted right on my holster. I also had two mags on my plate carrier in the truck bed.

We arrived in the city of Pendleton and we began looking around for places that the two demigods could be held up in. We cruised by a construction area that was shut down for the weekend. I pulled the truck up next to it. On the site was a large five story building that didn't have many windows. It looked like it could be a good place to temporarily hide some captured demigods.

"What do you guys think?" I asked.

"It might be it. I think we should check it out," said David.

"Do we go in with full kits?" asked Brandon.

"Yeah, lets do it," I said.

Brandon grabbed the gear bag and we hopped the fence surrounding the construction compound. We quickly moved to the side of the building where there were no windows and we were pretty well hidden. I unzipped the bag and we started getting our kits on. We had trained so much with infiltrating unknown layouts that we didn't need to discuss a game plan. Brandon would be the door man by using his gloves to melt the front door handle, it wasn't the fastest method but it was definitely the quietest. I was the point man after that and Brandon and David would follow.

We sneaked to the front door of the building and stacked up. The door was metal and had a twist and pull door handle. The door handle was on the right side of the door and Brandon was standing on the left. Brandon took off his left kit glove, or the glove that was not the leather work glove that he could control the outside temperature of, and slipped on the magic one. He reached across the door and gripped the handle. The glove didn't change at all but the handle turned red hot. The surface of the handle was so hot that it began to boil. As Brandon willed the glove to heat up more the handle began to melt. Once the handle became liquid it ran through his fingers. He stuck his fingers in the hole and pulled the door open. I lifted my M16 to my shoulder as I came through the door way.

We saw what was likely to be a lobby area. None of the furniture was in it but there was a long counter top. The the left of the counter top was a door labeled "Stairs" in red paint and on the right was a large opening in the wall. On the wall next to it was another label in read paint that said "Elevator". I kept my eyes on the door as David shouldered his MP7 and scanned the room. Brandon was behind him scanning our six. Upon arrival of the door, I tried the handle, it turned with ease. I swung the door open and walked inside. It was clear of anything that would harm us. The stair case was similar to the ones at Westview, there was a break in the middle where you would turn around. However, they were not as wide. We didn't need our night vision since it was daylight outside. I looked up the stair case as we slowly climbed them. We went up the second flight to find a door with a "2" labeled on it, for "second floor".

Behind the door was a long hallway. I was beginning to think that this was going to be a hotel when it was finished. There were several rooms on either side of the hallway, much like a hotel. There were no doors blocking our way so we leapfrogged from one room to another. I took the first door on the left and David took the next door on the right. Brandon took the room right next to mine and I had finished clearing my room I left a green chem-light, or glow stick, in the entry way. Then I would move to the right side of the hallway and clear the next room. If I encountered any targets, I would eliminate them and lay a red chem-light at the entry way. We had regrouped at the end of the hallway when we turned around and saw green chem-lights all the way down the hall. As we moved back down the hallway to the stair case, we picked up our chem-lights to be used on another floor.

We repeated the process on the third floor and came up empty handed. When we made it to the fourth floor we came across something we were not expecting. We could hear a boombox playing at the end of the hallway. It was the only sound as we crept up to it. I took point and slowly walked toward the last door on the left as David and Brandon peeked into each room to make sure we did not get ambushed from one of them along the way. I held up a closed fist when we reached the door, signaling to Brandon and David to hold position. We could hear two people inside, definitely males, giggling and chuckling. The boombox was playing some kind of rap music, I couldn't tell you who the artist was. I turned the corner and raised my M16.

"Stop what your doing and turn around slowly," I said.

The two males turned around one-hundred eighty degrees so they faced us. They were both about sixteen and were spray painting on the walls of the room with several gang signs from all different gangs. They were both wearing black sweatshirts and had cans of spray paint laying around the room. The tall one had red basketball shorts where the short, fat one was wearing blue ones. I could see two skateboards in the corner of the room. The expression on their face was priceless, both of their jaws were on the floor as I pointed my M16 at their faces. The tall one was shaking at the knees when the other was eying my trigger finger.

"Get on your knees," I told them.

"Are you guys SWAT?" the tall one asked as they got down.

"No. We're your worst nightmare," said Brandon.

"What are you guys doing?" asked David.

"I don't know, just hanging out. Uh, that was already there when we got here," said the short one pointing to the graffiti on the wall.

The room was filled with smoke which reeked of marijuana. I almost told Brandon and David to put gas masks on it was so bad. We didn't find any monsters or mercenaries, obviously, throughout the whole building. So, I decided to mess with these two stoners a little bit. The two reminded me of Jay and Silent Bob a little.

"OK, Jay and Silent Bob, you are going to tell me everything you know," I told them.

"What do you want to know?" The truth was I didn't want to know anything they knew.

"Everything you've learned since you were five," said Brandon, playing along to my little scheme.

"I've forgot," said the short one, Silent Bob.

"Who's Jay and Silent Bob?" asked the tall one, Jay, I nicknamed.

"Just a couple of pot-heads in a comic book. Now, GET!" I yelled as they grabbed their boards and the boombox and ran out as fast as they could.

"Why do people always think we're SWAT?" asked David.

"I'm not sure. Must be the uniform," I told him.

I looked at the graffiti on the wall. I kept looking at it because I thought I saw something under all of the gang signs. Some thing the short, fat pot-head said, _Uh, that was already there when we got here, _rang in my ears. _Had Luke's minions came here and gave us a clue?_

"What do you see? Under all of the graffiti, what do you see?" I asked Brandon and David.

"I see an EOU tag. What gang is that?" said David.

"No, not a gang. It's a school. Eastern Oregon University," answered Brandon.

"It kinda looks like a map of some kind," I said picking up a can of black spray paint. "Look."

I shook the can and traced a line that I saw that could have been the highway we were on. It looked just like it. The black stood out against the mostly red and white background. The line traced from the upper left corner of the wall to the EOU tag.

"It looks like I84, the road we were on that connects Pendleton and La Grande. Why would they give us directions to where they are?" asked Brandon.

"Because their cocky sons a bitches," I answered.

"Or they're trying to mislead us. Poor reverse psychology," suggested David.

"No. If they're paid mercenaries, they are some very cocky people. They probably know that there is only three of us and they probably out number us by a considerable margin," I explained.

"So, lets go! Do or die, right?" said David.

"I prefer to live. We need to think this out and plan for everything. We need to be at the top of our game for this one," said Brandon.

"First things first. We are going to college," I said and we walked out the door. Before we left, I fished out the little Nikon camera I had in my shirt sleeve and took two pictures of the wall with the graffiti.

When we made it to the bottom of the stairs we headed out of the building. Tactics went out the window, we had already cleared the building so there was no need to clear it again. We walked around to our gear bag and took our plate carriers and helmets off. We left our uniforms on as we climbed into the truck. I started it and we turned around and headed for La Grande. I drove a few miles an hour above the speed limit all the way.

When we got to La Grande, we started driving around the campus and tried to find a part that was under construction. We rolled up to the only building on campus that was under construction.


	13. Chapter 13

David

"They're in there. No doubt about it," said Big Luke.

"It's the only place on campus that's under construction," said Brandon.

"Perfect. It's scheduled for demolition soon," I said.

"We should make our way to a roof top some where and scout it out. Plan out our best course of action," said Big Luke.

Big Luke drove the truck about a mile away from the building to a two story library that was closed up for the night. We took the fire escape to the roof and set up shop. I set up my M110 on the short wall and maxed out the magnification on my scope. It was around sunset and we had the sun to our backs. I got out my night vision scope that worked by reading heat signatures rather than amplifying light. The scope attached to my rifle in front of my regular scope. Brandon and Big Luke put their backs against the wall and faced the other way.

"What can you see through the scope?" asked Big Luke.

"I can see two people on the fourth floor. They look like they are tied to chairs. I also see guys with guns throughout all six floors," I said.

"Is there anyone with the two people in the chairs?" asked Brandon.

"Yeah, three. One looks like he's putting on some kind of vest. A lot bulkier than anything we got. The other two are already kitted up and are holding rifles," I relayed.

"It's a bomb vest," said Big Luke. "Which means it's got one of two kinds of detonators. They could have a standard push the button and it goes off kind. That's the one we should hope for. The other would be a pressure trigger, when we enter, the guy will hold down the button. If we shoot and he releases it, we all go up."

"So, what do we do?" I asked, still looking through my scope. I could see all kinds of white hot silhouettes throughout the building.

"We are going to have to make a read on his thumb when we enter. You said six floors?" asked Big Luke.

"Yeah, and the two in the chairs are on the fourth floor." I said.

"We probably need to split up then. Have one of us go in through the top and the other goes in through the bottom," said Brandon.

"There's no good buildings for me to shoot from. I'll have to go in too," I said.

"I can go in through the top. I'll meet you guys on the fourth floor," said Big Luke.

"Are you sure about this?" asked Brandon.

"Yeah, don't worry. I'll be fine," Big Luke said, he didn't sound sure. "Look, I've trained you guys as well as I could in the past six weeks. I have faith in you guys. But, whatever happens, I want you guys to give it everything you've got. You need to get feisty and ferocious. Absolutely blood thirsty. You hear me?"

"Yeah," we both said softly.

"We go at four-hundred hours. The Russians did a study. They found that the human body can't operate at full capacity around that time, for the most part. It also leaves plenty of darkness for an operation. We will take shifts keeping watch. I'll start," said Big Luke.

I handed Big Luke my rifle and laid on my back. I put my hands behind my head and drifted to sleep. Then the weirdest thing happened, I actually had a dream. I never dream of anything. I dreamt that I was back in my old house. Sitting on our family couch was my dad, Apollo. I was standing in my living room in front of the fireplace looking at him. He was wearing a leather jacket and a white T-shirt. He looked like a fifties thug.

"Hey, son," he said.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" I asked.

"I understand that you are going in that building to find those Aphrodite kids," He said.

"Yeah, how did you know that?"

"I also understand that you traded in your bow for a sniper rifle," He ignored my question completely.

"Yeah, I did."

"Care to explain why?" he asked.

"Well, the bow was like the sniper rifle of ancient times. This is more of an upgrade, I guess," I told him.

"Jon Luke tell you that?" It was hard to take him seriously when he was looking over the tops of a pair of aviator sunglasses.

"He might of mentioned it, yes," I said.

"You trust him?" he asked.

"Why shouldn't I?"

"Come on, David. You know I can't tell you that. Now, you better get going. You've got a long day ahead of you," He said as he waved his hand.

I woke up on my side on the concrete roof. I sat up and saw that Big Luke was holding my rifle and was looking at me funny.

"What's up?" he asked.

"I just had a dream," I told him.

"That's a first. How was it?"

"It was weird. I was in my living room and my dad was on the couch. He asked me about that rifle. And he asked me if I trusted you. Do you know what's up with that?" I asked.

He shrugged. "No, do you trust me?"

"Yeah, with my life. It was just weird," I said.

He sighed and looked back down the scope. I checked my watch, it was only midnight. We still had four hours till "go time". Brandon was snoring with his helmet on his face.

"You want me to take over for a bit?" I asked.

"Sure," said Big Luke as he handed me the rifle.

He put his back against the wall and closed his eyes. Big Luke was a light sleeper, probably something he picked up during his deployment. I looked next to him at a couple boxes of ammo for his M16 and 1911. I picked up a round of the .45 ACP and looked at the bullet. The projectile glowed from the Celestial Bronze that cased it. Big Luke had swapped out his rounds for standard ammunition for use against the merc's.

I looked down the scope, everyone in the target building were still wide awake, waiting for us. I took a box of 4.6 X 30mm for my MP7 and pulled out the magazine from my gun. The 4.6mm round was originally designed to penetrate body armor. A feature that both Brandon's and Big Luke's guns lacked. However, it didn't have the stopping power that the other rounds had. I put my thumb on top of the first round and pushed it out into my palm. I did that for all forty rounds. Then I picked up the first standard round and slid it into the mag. I did that for all four of my magazines, I was going to need all of them.

When I finished, I took my plate carrier off. I was going to take off my spare mags for my M110 and replace them with the ones for my MP7. This was going to lighten my load a little bit and increase my mobility. I wasn't going in with my M110, it made no sense. It was semi-automatic and the .308 round it shot was too much for those walls. If I were to miss, the round could go through the walls and I could hit something I didn't want to.

I flipped my plate carrier over and took out my ghillie suit. Again, it wasn't needed, so I left it in the gear bag with my M110 mags. I tried to focus on the mission as much as possible, but it was difficult to concentrate with Brandon's snoring. I remembered how he had woken me up earlier with the unused flashbang. I was going to get him back but tonight was not the night. I was debating in my head if I should leave my bow in the bag as well. It was the only other weapon I had and I only had a few regular arrows. I probably wouldn't need it and it would turn out to be a liability. However, after the talk with Apollo made me think twice. I could tell that he didn't approve of my latest choice in weaponry and I thought if I didn't at least bring it, he might curse the invasion or something. I was putting my plate carrier back on when Brandon sat bolt upright. He started rummaging through the gear bag.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Hephaestus visited me in a dream. He said he had something for us for the..., the thing," he said.

"What thing, the invasion?" I asked.

"Is that what your calling it? I'd call it an infiltration. Anyway, ah ha!" he exclaimed as he pulled out something that wasn't there five minutes ago.

It was some kind of green and gray tube. With lots of levers and pins. It had a cone one one end and a flat cover on the other. There was a triangular piece on the bottom.

"It's a rocket launcher!" I said.

"An AT4 to be exact. It's a disposable rocket launcher," he corrected.

"And he wants you to carry it into the building with you?" I asked.

"He said we can't make it with out it."

"I thought the gods weren't supposed to help demigods?"

"Their not. He said that he knew he was breaking the rules but he said that Poseidon helped Percy Jackson on numerous occasions. He figured he could bend the rules just this once, he didn't give me any information, though," Brandon explained.

"Well, I'm sure we will use it."

"If you want I can take the next shift now," he said.

"Yeah, fine. You should switch all of your rounds out for standard ammunition. I saw that Big Luke did so I did too," I told him as I laid back down and fell asleep.

I just slept this time. No crazy dreams or funky visions. It was normal sleep.


	14. Chapter 14

Brandon

I took David's advice and switched out my rounds. I replaced the rounds in all seven of my MP5 mags and all four for my M9. I took a look down the scope of the M110 and didn't see any change, all of the Tangos were just hanging out on watch, waiting for us.

I picked up our newly acquired AT4 rocket launcher. I wasn't sure how I was going to carry it. I thought about just letting it hang out of the top of my backpack, but it was too long. I saw the sling hang off David's M110 on the wall. I looked on the AT4 and found sling mounts so I snagged the sling and attached it to the launcher. I got up on both knees and tried it on. It sat low and not vertical enough, so I took it off and tightened the strap. It sat perfectly after I put it back on again. The muzzle end was just behind my right shoulder.

"Where did that come from?" asked Big Luke who was asleep when I found the AT4.

"Hephaestus came to me in a dream. He said we were going to need this."

"Do you know how to shoot it?" he asked.

"No."

"It's not going to be much good if you don't know how to shoot it. Let me see it," I took the launcher off and handed it to Big Luke.

"Now, the first thing you do is pull this safety pin out," he pulled the safety pin towards the rear of the launcher. "Then you cock it by moving this lever to the side. After that, you hold down this safety lever down, aim using these sights and pull the trigger," He said pointing to the different parts. He put the pin back through the hole and handed it to me.

"You only got one shot. So make it count," he added. "After you shoot it, that leftover tube makes for a pretty good club."

I chuckled and put the AT4 down.

"What's it like?" I asked.

"To do what?"

"To kill a man?"

"In close quarters like this, there will be a lot of blood on the walls. They probably have pistol plates, your gonna want to aim for the neck and up. If they have a carrier that's a bit short, go for a gut shot," he said.

"Does it ever get easy?" I asked.

"It's never easy. It is however easy-er when they're trying to kill you back. Look, just focus on the mission. Think what would Brittany do when you save her," he chuckled.

"Oh, please. She's into you. Do you even like her back?" I asked while I smiled.

"Not really. Her and her brother are just a job. There will be more like it," he checked his watch. "It's 315 hours. We should probably get a move on."

I shook David awake.

"Is it time yet?" he asked.

"Yeah, get your gear on," said Big Luke.

We put our gear on in silence while we mentally prepared for the operation. It was a tradition we always did, even in training. After we were all ready, we could ask all the questions we needed to ask.

I had my plate carrier and my helmet on. I flipped down my night vision and adjusted them for the amount of light that was outside, then I amplified it a little to compensate for the light in the building. I picked up the AT4 and slung it over my shoulder, then came my MP5. I pulled the handle next to the barrel, or the charging handle, all the way to the rear as far as it would come. Then I let it go and heard the click as the first round chambered. I pulled out my M9 by pressing the button on the holster. I grabbed the rear of the slide on the serrations and pulled the slide back. I saw the copper-jacked round on the top of the magazine slide into the chamber when I released my grip on the slide.

The M9 is a single/double action pistol with a decocker safety, so when I put the gun on safe, the hammer fell safely forward. I reholstered the handgun and picked up my MP5 from the sling. Big Luke and Brandon both finished gearing up.

"Any questions?" asked Big Luke.

"How are we going to breach the door?" I asked.

"You guys can go in with lower profile, melt the handle or something. I'm going to go loud. I'll use my 590. Hopefully that will keep most of them on me. Another thing, watch for booby traps. I taught you guys about claymores and C4 so keep an eye out. I want to go radio silent on this one, too. If we start talking to each other it might set them off that there are two groups in the building," he explained.

"More guys? Can you handle it?" asked David.

"I got all I need. There is no weapon deadlier than a Marine and his rifle, and I got my rifle," he said confidently with a smile. His arrogance was showing. "Let's roll out."

We went back the way we came, down the fire escape and back to the truck. I sat in the shotgun seat and David sat in the middle of the back seat. Big Luke drove us as quietly as he could to the target building. The last thing we needed was our op cut short by the Fuzz. We parked the truck behind a building across the street in an alley. I got out and met David and Big Luke by the grill of the truck.

"OK, I'm going to get into that building next door and I'll repel down to the roof of the target. I'll breech there and when you hear that wait two minutes and enter. Got it?" he asked and we both nodded. "See you guys on the fourth floor," and he was gone.

We watched as Big Luke looked both ways for cops or bystanders and crossed the street. He tried the door but it was locked. He moved to the fire escape and started climbing. The actual target building lacked a fire escape because the PMC inside dismantled it so we couldn't use it. He had made it to the top of the building and we could see him set up his repel. I signaled to David to move out. He got to the end of the alley and checked both ways and signaled to me that it was clear by giving me the thumbs up. We hustled to the front door and waited. It was quiet on the streets at 4 am, nobody was walking their dog or stumbling home from a party.

We waited for what seemed like hours waiting for Big Luke's shotgun to go off. I was standing on the left side of the door and David was standing on the right. I kept my hand off the handle for the time being. David checked his MP7 more then once to make sure he had a loaded chamber. He looked up and I could see a look of shock in his face.

"Come on, go this way," he said as he ushered me under the window sills to an alley on the side of the building. "I saw a cop car coming," he explained.

"OK, good call," I told him.

We saw the black and white roll by and we crept back to the door. I felt like any second now, I was going to hear the boom. I reached around and pulled my gloves out from my back pocket. I changed the left one to grip the handle. I checked my watch, fifteen minutes after Big Luke originally said we would breech.

Finally, BOOM! The shot rang out from the twelve gauge shotgun. I could hear the opposition on the other side of the door bustling making there way to a staircase probably. We could also hear all sorts of commotion on the roof. I checked my watch and we waited the two minutes that Big Luke instructed us to do. We waited more like a minute and a half because we got tired of waiting. I gripped the door handle and willed my glove to heat up. I felt the fire in my stomach grow bigger as I could see the handle heat up. I melted through it and I pulled the door open, David took point while shouldering his MP7. I slipped in behind him as we came to see a empty lobby. Everyone there must have thought the entire threat was up stairs.

We made our way to the staircase when we met our first obstacle: a claymore mine set up on the fourth step. You had to turn the corner to see it. There was a trip wire set up at a forty-five degree angle. I looked at the claymore, it was attached to the detonator pin. So, if we pulled the pin it would explode, killing us both. I took out a pair of side-cutters and knelt down behind the wall. If I was wrong, then we were in for quite a bang. I reached around and put the open jaws of the tool around the trip wire and held it there. I put my head behind the wall and reached up over my head with my other hand. I showed three fingers signaling that I was about to cut the wire. 3, 2, 1 and I cut the wire, bringing down a finger on each number. Nothing happened and we hustled around the corner past the claymore as fast as possible. We climbed the stairs to the second floor.

When we came around he corner at the top of the stairs, I saw what looked like the inside of a office building. There was a large room with three pillars on each end, to the left was a glassed off area with a few desks and filing cabinets. To the right was much bigger with lots of cubicles. There were three lanes that went along side the glassed off area, one by the right wall and one in the middle. They ran with the room and there were two more lanes that ran across towards the center of the room. It was kind of like a grid. David took the right lane and I took the middle. We had made it about halfway through the room when we saw the first mercenary come around one of the pillars at the end of the room. He had an AK-74 assault rifle with some kind of optic. He wore all black so he stood out in the white walled, lighted building. He lifted his rifle but I could swing my lighter MP5 faster. I put the reticle from my holographic sight on his chest and pulled the trigger. The MP5 fired a nice four round burst that crawled up the guys face. I looked away from what was left of him, I couldn't describe it. We headed for the staircase on the other side of the room where David let me catch up.

The staircase was dark so I took point with my flashlight. I turned the corner to see another guy with an MP5 similar to mine sitting at the top of the stairs. I side-stepped to the other side of the staircase, dodging several rounds that impaled the tile next to me. I put three rounds in him and he fell. He started moving and David came around the corner and shot around the guys body armor. The dead guys buddies on the third floor heard his shots and saw his body. We moved back and waited for them to come down, we weren't about to go up and get ambushed. We could hear them discussing if they should come down and get us or if they should wait for us to make the first move. They only whispered but you could tell that there was a disagreement. That's when bullets started coming down around us through the floor. David was standing on the stair side of the opening so he walked a few steps backwards and fired up through the floor where he thought they were standing.

The rounds stopped coming at us but to be sure, David took out his only regular frag grenade and tossed it up the stairs. It bounced off the wall and into the third floor. BOOM! Then we moved up. The guy on the stairs blood started dripping down the steps which made it slippery. The third floor was identical to the second, only reversed, the glassed area was on the right and the cubicles were on the left. We were now one floor below the target floor.

There was a single hand from one of the guys that was near the grenade when it blew up. It was laying palm up and that image got stuck in my head. We entered the room and immediately started taking rounds. We ducked behind some cubicles and knelt down. The rounds were continuous and never ending. I couldn't tell how far away the source was.

"It's coming from one gun!" I yelled over the gun fire.

"Yeah, I'll try to flank around," David returned.

There was a slight lull in the in the firing and David took it as an opportunity to move. I took a split second to look down the room. There was a man in a big armored suit carrying a belt fed machine gun of some kind. The man was covered from head to toe in armor that I don't think David's armor piercing rounds couldn't penetrate. The the guy opened fire and I ducked.

"It's a juggernaut. I don't think I'll be able to penetrate the armor."

"This must be when I break the big boy out!" I screamed.

"Go for it!" he yelled back.

I slipped my sling off my shoulder and laid my MP5 against the cubicle. I pulled the AT4 off my other shoulder and pulled the safety pin. I put the triangular piece up to my shoulder and held down the safety pad on the right side of the tube.

"Flash him!" I yelled in David's direction.

David took cover behind the cubicle across from mine. He pulled a flashbang from his plate carrier that was mounted to the chest of the front panel. He held down on the spoon and pulled the pin.

"Flash out!" he called as he threw the flashbang at the juggernaut's feet.

We ducked to avoid the flash. Afterward, I stood up and aimed down the sight. I put the sight pin on the wall right behind the juggernaut. I pulled the trigger and instantly felt the launcher vibrate. The rocket flew and hit right where I put the pin. I'd like to say that the explosion was loud but I couldn't hear it. The blast from the AT4 knocked out my hearing, hopefully temporarily. I tried to find David through the smoke.

"David!" I called out.

The juggernaut was gone and I couldn't see him shooting anymore. I felt someone grab my shoulder and spin me around. I saw David screaming something that could have been along the lines of "We have to get out of here!" or "I can't hear!".

"Your right!" I yelled.

He chuckled and pointed to the staircase on the other side of the room and started running at it. I dropped the tube and slung my MP5 back on my shoulder. I ran up and stacked up behind David. He looked up our last flight of stairs and signaled to me that it was clear. My hearing was coming back a little at this point.

We got to the fourth and our final floor and we could hear all of Big Luke's manufactured chaos coming down the stairs. Sounds unimaginable unless you were there. We took a knee at our end and pointed our muzzles at where we expected to see Big Luke coming down.

What we saw instead was a unarmed mercenary falling down the stairs. He got up and ran our direction. A blood-covered Big Luke came crashing through after him. The merc turned around midway down the hallway and drew a black fixed bladed knife and came at Big Luke. Neither David or I felt like pulling the trigger with Big Luke right behind our target, and we knew that Big Luke didn't want us to shoot either.

Big Luke saw the knife coming and caught the guy at the wrist. Big Luke pulled the guy over his shoulder and the knife flew out of the guys hand. He flipped the merc on to his stomach and stomped on the back of his head, probably knocking him out and breaking his nose.

Big Luke stood up, his uniform and face were all covered with blood. He had lost his helmet and headset along the way. His dump pouch had a few empty mags in it. It looked like he didn't fire too many rounds, most of his fighting was hand to hand. He was missing a glove and had a small cut through his sleeve and into his arm a little bit.

"How are you guys doing?" he whispered.

"Still alive. How about you?" said David. My hearing was still a little shot so I kept the talking to a minimum.

Big Luke just nodded, breathing heavily. He nodded his head to a closed door, the only closed door in the hallway. We stacked up. I was the door man and Big Luke took point. David was behind him. I put my hand on the handle and it turned with ease. I pulled it open and Big Luke and David filed into the room. I filed in behind them to see Mathew and Brittany both duct taped to wooden chairs. There was also two more merc's and a leader with a bomb vest and his thumb was on the button.


	15. Chapter 15

Big Luke

WARNING: Don't try this at home, kids.

Going back to when I was still on top of the next-door building which was nine stories tall. I looked over the edge to the target building, it was way to far to jump down so I decided to set up a repel. I found a good bar that would hold my weight. I set up a double-strand or retrievable repel. This way I didn't leave much of a trail.

Ever since I failed to graduate Sniper School, I tried to implement the art of stealth into everything I did, at least as much as possible.

I was hanging from about twenty-five feet off of a wall and was scaling down it at a moderate pace. My impatient ways caught up with me and I started to bound. I was on my second bound when the rope got caught in the figure-eight on the harness. It was stuck good and I was still fifteen feet up in the air.

I wasn't about to cut the rope, but I pulled out my knife anyway. I spent a good five minutes trying to get unstuck. This figure-eight was never very reliable, It had gotten bent out of shape and I never had the chance to straiten it out. After I finally got it unstuck I kept bounding until I reached the roof of the next door building. I took off the harness and pulled down the rope. I put them both in my backpack and moved over to a door on the roof.

I reached over my right shoulder and grabbed the butt-stock of my 590 and pulled it out of the scabbard. My 590 has a twenty-inch barrel with ghost ring sights and a nine shot tube. I had the police-style forend with ribs and I had a synthetic stock that had tubes for extra rounds. On the left, I had 00 Buck and in the right tube, I had two slugs. I liked the ergonomics of the Mossberg 590 over other alternatives. The safety switch was right on top of the receiver right next to your thumb and the stock was really comfortable. I held down the slide release with my middle finger behind the trigger guard and slid the pump back about halfway.

I looked in the chamber and saw the clear plastic, breaching round that was hooked on the extractor like it should have been. I slid the pump forward and took the gun off safety. I put my ear against the door and listened for anyone on the other side. I knew I was way behind schedule but you can't rush a good breach, it's extremely important to not screw up.

I didn't hear anything on the other side of the door so I took a step back. The door was made of heavy wood and had a deadbolt along with the handle. I pointed the shotgun at the deadbolt and took a deep breath. The muzzle was about ten inches from the door as I pushed the twelve-gauge hard against my shoulder. I took another deep breath and squeezed the trigger. BANG! That was the other thing I loved about the 590, it was dead-on reliable.

I racked the pump on the boomstick and put it on safe. Then I slipped it back in the scabbard. I pulled my M16 from the weapons catch and held it against my chest. I moved to the right and put my right foot back. I kicked the door open with my right foot and raised my rifle. I flipped my NVG down since the mercenaries had knocked out the lights on the top three floors.

The stairs went down about four steps and took a ninety degree turn to the left. I was about to walk in when my first victim came running up the stairs. I put two rounds in his chest and put the third in his forehead. His blood and brains splashed against the wall behind him. I stepped over him as I continued down the stairs.

I came down to the corner where I entered into some kind of office floor with a hallway and offices on either side of it. I saw one guy in every office's entry way. I backed up a few rungs of stairs as rounds began crashing into the wall. I had a single flashbang with me, just like the bank. This time however, I also had a smoke grenade. I wasn't sure if I should use it now or I should hold on to it for later.

I took out the flashbang and held the spoon down. I pulled the pin and tossed the banger down the hallway. I heard the boom and came around the corner with my M16 shouldered. I shot two guys in the entryways in the first two rooms who were disoriented by the flashbang. I moved into the one on the right and shot another hiding inside the room.

I turned around to see another merc with a AK-74 pointed at my chest. I didn't have my M16 ready so he defiantly had the drop on me. He didn't shoot which meant he wanted me to drop my weapon. International sign language for get down and spread 'em.

Thankfully, this guy was not very experienced, he came right up to me.

I held my hands up and played like I was complying. But then I reached out for his gun and twisted it out of his hands. I had the wooden stock in my left hand and I swung it at the guys face. He fell over and I smashed his face with the butt of his own gun. This guys buddies were more experienced, they were going to wait for me to expose myself and light me up when I do.

I stood inside the room and looked through the door at an angle. My field of view was limited but I could see one guy's chem-lights hanging off his kit. He couldn't see me since I was well covered and in the shadows. I raised my rifle and put the reticle on his face and pulled the trigger. My brass casings hit the floor right at the same time as his body.

I had taken my suppressor off so my muzzle flash lit up the hallway as I continued to fire at the Tangos at the other end. I moved up with my finger on the trigger, laying down covering fire for myself. The merc's moved back into their rooms and I found a room to slip into for cover.

I saw one guy in the room. We both tried our triggers. Both guns went CLICK! Apparently I had tanked my mag. He immediately started reloading his MP5, I went for my 1911 on my thigh. He was just about to slap his bolt catch when I put three rounds in his face.

I heard footsteps behind me and I whipped around. There was another merc in the entryway and I put the remaining five rounds in to him and he fell over. The slide locked back on my 1911, I was out of ammo. I hit the slide release on my .45 with my thumb, closing the slide on a empty chamber. I reholstered the gun when the final merc came into the room. He could have been Native American and was sort of short. He was big though and ripped. He had two black lines drawn on his face under each eye. He also had three red, vertical lines coming down from his forehead to his cheek bones. He was out of ammo too and had a tomahawk drawn.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" he screamed as he charged me with the tomahawk held high.

I stepped into his swing with my arm out to block the tomahawk. My forearm caught his wrist and he dropped the weapon, but not until the blade hacked my NVG to pieces.

He tackled me and I fell on my back. He knelt on top of me, holding me down. He drew a small knife from his boot and ripped my helmet off my head. He came down with the knife and I blocked it away from me. I punched him in the side and rolled on top of him. He nearly stabbed me in the thigh in the process but put a long slice through my sleeve and into my arm. I punched him in the face several times until the knife fell out of his hand.

I picked it up and started stabbing him repeatedly. His blood got all over me. I stood up, leaving the knife in the guy's forehead and caught my breath. Then I drug myself into the hallway and headed for the staircase.

I leaned my shoulder against the wall and picked up my M16. I pressed the magazine release right by my trigger finger on the side of the receiver. The mag dropped free into my left hand. I dropped it into my dump pouch and pulled a new one out of my mag pouches on my stomach. I slipped it into the magwell and heard the click. I hit the bolt released on the left side of the receiver and felt the bolt chamber a round. I did the same for my 1911.

I figured that I killed most of the opposition and the next floor was going to be a cake walk compared to the sixth floor. I headed down the steps to the fifth floor and immediately came in confrontation with a juggernaut, or heavily armored, heavily armed asshole. This guy was holding a PKM machine gun and he used it, a lot. I had to jump into a room just to avoid the rounds as they crashed through the walls. I was face down on the floor for at least a minute. I finally heard his gun click and I grabbed a wooden chair that was sitting in the room. I knew nothing I had was going to penetrate the juggernaut's armor, the chair was the best thing I had at the moment.

Rather than reloading which would take a long time, the juggernaut dropped his PKM and drew a Glock of some model. I hid behind the wall with the chair and waited for him to come through the door. He stopped right before he entered. I could hear his heavy breathing under his suit. I'm sure he could hear mine. We both stood on either side of the wall right next to the door. I was about to bring a chair to gun fight, and I wasn't about to go first.

He finally decided to jump to the other end of the door way and opened fire. I back up a step so he couldn't see me nor could he shoot me. He walked inside still shooting his Glock and I almost got hit. I moved to the right and got up along side of him and smashed the chair over is oversized helmet. He stumbled and I went for the gun. I put both hands on it and we went to the ground. The gun was pointed up in the air as we were on our backs fighting for it. I took my right elbow and hit him in his face-shield. I was able to put my right palm on the grip and force it out of the juggernaut's hands.

It was tossed to the side and picked up a broken leg from the chair. I climbed on top of the juggernaut and pulled his helmet off his head and put the sharp point on the chair leg right next to his head into his shoulder. Blood squirted everywhere as he howled out in pain. I yanked it out and stabbed him a few more times. Blood started to pool around me as I stood up. We had fought right next to the door and I could see the light in the hallway turn on. I waited in the same place as I hid by the wall. The blood started flowing through the door.

"Jack?" I heard someone say, definitely a male.

"You guys never seem to quit, do you?" I asked him.

I heard the classic sound of a pump action shotgun being racked and saw the guy holding it walk into the room. I put my hand under the barrel and I lifted it to the sky. He tried to hit me with the stock but I ducked. I came up and I kicked him in the nuts. He dropped the shotgun instantly and started running for the stairs, grabbing his nether regions. I chased after him.

We went down the stairs and he took off down the hallway. I could see Brandon and David kneeling at the other end when I crashed onto the fourth floor. The mercenary tuned about halfway down the hallway as he was trying to hide the knife. I could see it a mile away. When he came at my face with it, I grabbed him at the wrist and threw him over my shoulder. I flipped him on his stomach and stomped on the back of his head. He stopped moving. I stood up straight.

"How are you guys doing?" I asked, breathing heavily.


	16. Chapter 16

David

We had breached the door and Big Luke put up his hand in front of my face, signaling not to shoot the guy in the bomb vest. Brittany and Mathew were both duct taped to the the chair and were flanked by two guys with AK's standing in either corner of the room. The guy in the bomb vest had his thumb on the button on the detonator. He held it up so we could see it. If we shot him and he let go, the bomb would go off. He had short black hair and one evil grin on his face.

"You found us! Did you see our message?"

"Yeah, we saw it. Were those real stoners or were you fucks playing dress up, again?" asked Big Luke.

"I didn't mean for them to cover it up, but I knew you would see it. You're not like most leathernecks, you're somewhat smart," he said and I could see Big Luke pull the slack out of his trigger.

"Better watch what you say. Now, disarm the bomb and we will get out of here," instructed Big Luke.

"Your in no position to negotiate. Besides, you need to hold up your end of the bargain. You know, for your mom?" I didn't know what he was talking about but Big Luke seemed to know because he took a deep breath.

I saw Big Luke pivot on his front foot and his muzzle pointed right at Brandon and I.

"What are you doing?" I snapped.

"I made a deal with Luke Castellan. He said if I brought you guys here, he...," He paused for a second. "He said he could bring back my mom. Now, I beg you, put your weapon's down," he instructed.

He didn't sound like he really wanted to do it but he said it anyway. I knew Big Luke and I knew he loved and missed his mom. But this shocked me.

"You tricked us the whole time, you fucking asshole! Did you give them information about camp, too?" Brandon beckoned.

"Yeah I did. I also helped them rob banks to fund the war. That op at the school, I was working for the camp. That was real. Castellan talked to me in a dream two nights ago. He had these guys take Brittany and Mathew so you would come with me into this place. I'm sorry guys. Now please, put your guns down."

We weren't happy about it but we slowly laid down our guns, Brandon even took out his M9 and I took off my bow. The too guys with AK's walked behind us and put their muzzles in our backs.

"Walk," one of them commanded and we came out of the room.

They cut Brittany and Mathew loose and they came with us. We started walking to the staircase where Big Luke came down from and we heard a loud thump. I looked back but couldn't see anything but the guy that was still knocked out on the floor. We started climbing the stairs. Brittany tore off her duct tape from over her mouth.

"What was that all about?" she asked.

"Big Luke is a traitor. He brought us here and he expects this guy to bring his mom back. Gods, that fucking pisses me off," said Brandon.

"Hey, watch your mouth," Brittany told him.

"Sorry, it's just that, he played us like a fiddle. I was too stupid to pick up on it," Brandon was really beating himself up over the whole thing.

Don't get me wrong, I hated Big Luke for this too, but there was nothing we could do about it now. We had to figure out how to get back to camp.

I wasn't convinced that Big Luke even pulled his trigger as I climbed the stairs. Was Big Luke even fighting his way in? Or did they just spray him with some fake blood and sat around drinking beer? I imagined Big Luke sitting with a few guys in lawn chairs and setting flashbangs off to make it seem like he was fighting them off.

But then I saw the catastrophe that Big Luke had created. There were several bodies laying in puddles of their own blood, stewing to the slight hum of the florescent lighting. There were lots of spent casings that littered the floor, several I could tell were .223 that Big Luke had shot. I saw in one room was Big Luke's helmet with the night vision busted, his glove was laying there too. On the sixth floor on the stairs coming from the roof we could see a guy sitting up against the wall. There was a big blood stain on the wall and there was a thin line of the red liquid flowing from the guys forehead.

They escorted us into this room on the six floor with steel cages and a small wooden table in the corner. The cages were unpainted and both were perfectly identical. The two merc's with the AK's told Brandon and I to take off our kits. We did and laid it all on the table that was in the corner. One of the guys opened up the cage doors and Brandon and I went in one while Brittany and Mathew went in the other. Then they locked the doors and left.

"You can open your eyes now, Mathew," Brittany told him. He had put his hands over his eyes as we moved through the top two floors so he couldn't see the bodies.

"What's going to happen to us?" asked Mathew.

"I don't know, kid. But we need to figure a way out of here," I told him. "Any ideas, Brandon?"

"I can't think right now. Not after all that," he answered.

We sat in silence for awhile. Brittany was sitting up against the bars and Mathew was sitting cross-legged in one corner. I put my back into one of the corners and felt the cold bars press through my shirt. We could hear the guys outside dragging their fallen comrades out of the building. Big Luke was quite the killer, he took on at least eleven guys including the one on the fourth floor all by himself and succeeded.

After they were done dragging the bodies out, they started mopping the floors like they were expecting someone. They had been up a long time and worked sluggishly. The sunlight was starting to leak through the windows. It was morning and these guys were probably up for a good twenty-four hours.

We waited and waited until someone finally opened the door. It was like the devil himself walked into the room. Luke Castellan grabbed a chair and sat backwards in it and faced us. He had a dark blue sports coat and khaki slacks. He had a white button-up shirt on underneath his sports coat. His sword, Backbiter, was strapped to his left side. My guess is he drew across his body.

"How are you guys doing? You hungry?" he asked.

No one answered. There was no doubt that we were hungry, but we didn't want anything that Luke had. Brittany saw the scar on his face and thought better of it to answer. Mathew followed her lead. I looked over at Brandon. Him being the oldest of our team after Big Luke left, he was kind of the leader at this point. Brandon just stared at Castellan.

"Taking the fifth, eh? Well, we will see where that gets you. You know I can help you guys. I can get you a nice bed, some good food. Of course, you just need to do something for me first," he explained.

"We don't want anything to do with you," Brandon told him.

"Come on, Jon went through all that trouble to get you guys here and you wont even humor me?"

"Who's Jon?" I asked.

"Well, that's his name right? Luke is his middle name," asked Castellan.

"No, Jon Luke is his first name. He probably has another name for his middle name. It's common in the South," Brittany explained.

"That and pickup trucks and moonshine, huh?" he joked.

"Be glad he's not here. He doesn't like to be insulted. Say too much and he'll fight you for it," I told him.

"Don't worry, I can handle Big Luke. You know I was the best sword fighter camp?" he asked.

"You didn't see the bodies. He doesn't care if you're indestructible. He'll take you on, no matter what," I replied.

"Anyway, if you guys want out of here. All you have to do is pledge your allegiance to Kronos and join my army," he said, not phased.

"No fucking way, Luke. You can take your offer and shove it up your ass," Brandon told him.

"OK, well, I guess your going to be here for awhile then. If you decide to change your minds, holler and we will come," said Castellan as he got up and walked out.

"Who is that guy?" asked Brittany.

"Do you remember who Kronos is?" asked Brandon.

"Yeah, he was like the gods' dad and he swallowed them so he could keep his control. But Zeus escaped somehow and chopped him to pieces, freeing his siblings."

"You're right. Well, he's trying to regain his power over the Olympians who are currently in power. However, he needs Luke to put him back together since he was sliced up and all. Luke wants to bring him back because he feels that the gods have betrayed him. He's raising this army and lots of demigods have joined with him. We know he's got lot's of spies at camp but we don't know who they are or how to spot them out. Big Luke was an example of that," I explained.

"He _is_, right? Not _was_," asked Mathew.

"No, he blew his cover. He won't be coming back to camp with us," said Brandon coldly.

"I don't know that he's really all that bad," I said.

"What do you mean? He brought us onto this Strike Team and formed a friendship with us. He teaches us all of that stuff, he was even a instructor at camp. Then he goes and ruins it all!" Brandon was pissed, and what he said wasn't wrong.

"Your right. But, I don't think he wanted to do it. I think he just wanted his mom back. You heard the way he talked about that night. It was tearing him apart ever since he left. He feels guilty for what happened and he feels like he needs to fix it. When that opportunity finally came his way, he took it. I might of done the same if it was my mom," I explained.

Brandon took a deep breath. "Maybe," he said.

"Now how do we get out of here?" asked Mathew.

"Let me think," said Brandon.

The guards told him to take his gloves out of his back pocket, otherwise we would have used them to get us out. The gloves now were laying on top of the pile of our gear, taunting us. For some reason they decided to bring our guns up with us. Brandon's black hair was messed up from his helmet and headset. His track-star like frame was folded with his knees bent and his arms crossed on top of them. He sat there, looking at the table then he looked at Brittany and he got this _AH HA! _look on his face.

"Brittany, do you have a hair pin?" he asked her.

"Not on me. The only one I had fell out when they grabbed us," she said.

"Damn."

He sat there and thought some more. I had no idea how to get out, I just knew that it needed to get done. I started sweating and rolled up the sleeves on my BDU. Brandon watched and he must of gotten another idea.

"David, take your shirt off," he told me.

"Huh?" I said.

"We tie them together and maybe make a rope of some kind," He said as he took his BDU top off.

"OK. It's worth a shot," I said.

I took my BDU top off, exposing my orange camp shirt. I handed the digital patterned shirt to Brandon who was tying his shirt into a rope like fashion with several knots to hold it together. He took a sleeve from both shirts and tied them together. He put a big loop in one end and tried for his gloves. The loop was falling just short. Brandon was trying to squeeze as much of his arm out through the bars as possible.

"There's no way. It's just too short. We need more shirts," announced Brandon.

I looked at Brittany.

"Don't look at me. I'm not giving up my shirt," she said.

I blushed. I looked at Brittany mainly for an idea. Not necessarily her shirt, just an idea.

"No, I wasn't thinking that. I swear!" I said. I wasn't about to swear on the River Styx but I did swear.

"Sure," she said, crossing her arms.

Brandon was still trying to reach the gloves when the door was kicked open. The man standing in the doorway was not who I expecting at all. He was in a juggernaut suit so you couldn't see his face. The right arm of the suit was limp and just hanging there. The other arm of the suit was filled with an arm which was holding a bloody knife. One of the guards outside of the door was now laying on the floor dead.

"I thought I killed you already!" Brandon yelled at him.

"I'm glad you didn't," the guy in the suit said, his voice was muffled so it was hard to tell who it was.

* * *

_**Author's Note:**__** So, for those who have read this far. Who is your favorite character in the story? Why? I don't need an essay, just something brief and short will suffice. I appreciate any and all feedback. Thank you!**_


	17. Chapter 17

Big Luke

I would be lying if I said I wasn't half hoping that Brandon or David would shoot me after I turned. I hated that, the way that worked out was not the way I was hoping. Now, I was knocked unconscious and laying on the ground somewhere.

In my head, I was sitting on the deck of the boat that my mom would barrow from my grandad every now and then. She was sitting on the one of the seats and her black hair was tied in a pony tail. She was wearing a white dress and she seemed to shimmer with light.

"Mom?" I asked.

"Yes, Jon Luke. It's me. You made a big mistake," she said.

"Where are we? Are you back?" I asked.

"No, Jon Luke. I'm not. And I never will. This Luke Castellan character, he tricked you. Nothing can bring me back. In a way, I think you knew that all along," she said. She spoke in a angelic monotone.

I looked down, I was back in my oil-stained jeans and a plaid shirt with the sleeves torn off. My arms were tanned all the way to my shoulder. I wasn't wearing a watch like I should have been. My wrist was missing the light spot on the skin where my watch was supposed to be. My combat boots were switched out for my old brown work boots. When I looked back up I saw my dad on the other side of the boat. He was wearing a light blue shop shirt with the name _Hephaestus _written on the name tag.

"Hey, son," he said.

"How you doin'?" I asked awkwardly.

"I'm disappointed in you Big Luke. You screwed up, and now your letting your friends suffer," he said.

"Your disappointed? I was disappointed in you for my whole life! Where the fuck were you?" I knew he was a god and he couldn't stay with my mom and me but he didn't have to leave us in that situation. Hephaestus just sighed.

"I did what I could. I gave you the tools to build whatever you wanted. I knew you were smart. I just thought that you could build whatever you needed to get out of a situation. I'm sorry. Kaitlin, I didn't mean for you to die. I wanted to help but the fates wouldn't let me interfere. They said it was destiny," he said.

"I forgive you," said my mom.

"Now, Jon Luke. You need to go back and fix what you did wrong. Find a way to make it up to your friends," he said as he waved his hand.

I woke up face flat on the floor of the first story. My wrists taped together behind my back and my ankles taped as well. I had been stripped of my plate carrier, my M16 and my knife. I could tell that someone tried to take my holster off but failed since it was magic and it probably shocked them when they tried to tamper with it.

I sat upright. I was in one of the back rooms behind the lobby. Someone had cut a four foot square hole in the ground. They laid a piece of plywood over it. I looked around and saw a fenced off area with a bunch of tactical gear inside.

If there was any shred of doubt that I had been tricked, they weren't selling it well.

"Hey, good morning," the big man himself walked in, Luke Castellan.

"What do you want? If your going to kill me, you better fucking do it quick," I told him.

"We'll get to that in a minute," he said as he squatted in front of me. "You did good, Jon Luke."

"Finally, it took you to the point of killing me, but you finally figured out what my gods damn name is," I said with a smile on my face. I wasn't about to give this pipsqueak the satisfaction of scaring me.

"I talked to your team. They said that was your whole first name. Why don't you like being called Jon?" He asked.

"It's my step-dad's name. I wanted to kill him and I was hoping you would show me where he was when this was all over."

"Yeah, they work for me, actually. Both of them. Jon took Kyle with him and joined up with these PMC guys. Their group came across me and I was hiring," some how I wasn't surprised.

"What else did my friends say?" I asked.

"They don't want anything to do with me, or you for that matter. I even offered them food and they turned it down with haste. You trained them well, though. They're some pretty tough motherfuckers," He was trying to piss me off, that I let him.

"That wasn't me. They were tough motherfuckers before I ever met them," I said it and I meant it.

"Do you notice anything different about yourself. You know, besides the obvious. No vest, guns or dignity?" he asked. I shook my right leg.

"My 1911 is lighter than I left it. You try to take the mag out with a screwdriver or something?" I asked.

"No, I had one of the minions do it. I usually don't get dirty," he said. "Look, this is fun and all but I want to see you die. Below you is a trap door, below that is the basement. In the basement is some kind of monster. It will kill you. Since you did me a great favor in bringing four new demigods to my disposal, I will do you a favor by cutting you loose."

"That's probably the boldest thing I ever heard you say. Now, if only we could get you to kill me yourself," I told him, trying to get a reaction out of him.

"I don't feel like it," he said. "Guards!" he called and the two guys with the AK's walked in. They pointed their weapons on me and stood outside of my arms reach. Luke walked behind me and drew his sword. "We left you one in the chamber."

"I know you did. You wouldn't be able to get it out if you tried."

"Yeah, just remember. You should save the last bullet for yourself," he said as he cut the duct tape around my wrists and ankles. Then I slowly stood up.

One round wasn't going to kill both guards and Luke, and I wasn't about to give up without a fight. Luke walked over to the lever that would drop the trap door.

"Goodbye, Jon Luke," he said as he yanked the lever.

The plywood platform fell with me into the basement. The room was dark and smelled like dog crap. If the monster didn't kill me, the smell certainly would. Luke Castellan had walked away and so did the guards. The only light was from the hole in the ceiling and over the door to the stairs.

I turned around and backed up to the edge of the light spot. I looked into the darkness of the room. I could hear something stand up, something big, really big. It didn't even show itself, it just pounced on me through the light in a flash of orange and yellow.

I raised my right arm to try and block it but the thing caught hold of it in it's massive jaws. I felt and heard the bones in my arm fracture under the pressure. I howled out in pain as the beast lifted me a foot in the air.

My arm was close to jelly in the beasts mouth, its teeth digging into my flesh. I had to put my left arm over the beasts snout and hold myself up just to keep from losing my arm. I started kicking with all my might and the beast threw me into the spot light. It walked into the light and I finally knew what I was up against. A giant lion, probably the size of a minivan.

"You gotta be fucking kidding me," I said to the lion. "Look at you."

The lion's lips and snout were covered with dried blood and had several scars around his shoulders. He was missing a piece of his ear and his claws were dull yet still deadly.

I almost felt sorry for the big cat. He was poorly taken care of and his living quarters were to blame. I stood up and held my broken arm to my chest. The lion was not afraid of me what's so ever. He just stretched and sat down, waiting for me to make a move.

"Oh, so you want me to make the first move, Huh?" I don't know what possessed me to talk to a lion but I did.

The lion just made a noise deep in his throat and dragged his tail back and fourth on the floor. I just stood there clutching my broken arm. Even if I could draw my 1911, I probably wouldn't be able to hit the lion. I would have to draw left handed some how and then shoot left handed.

On the other hand. I remembered what Castellan had said:_ Save the last bullet for yourself. _Yeah, no fucking way is that going to happen.

"My guess is that you don't want to be here much either," I said to the lion.

The lion tilted his head like a dog might do when he hears a new sound.

"Yeah, well. What can you do, right?"

The lion continued to brush the ground with his tail.

"OK, Look. I like talking to giant lions as much as the next guy, but I need to be going,"

I took a step towards the door in the back with the light above it. The lion mirrored the step. I took another step and the lion mirrored again. I knelt down on my left knee and rested my broken arm on my right thigh. I had to do this so I could extend my good hand to the lion as if I was going to shake his paw. Surprisingly, the lion reached out with his paw and touched my hand.

"You want to get out of here?" I asked the beast.

He just yawned, like he was waiting for me to say that the entire time.

I got up and side stepped to the right. I tried to walk around the lion and the lion just spun in a circle. I faced the lion as I backed up towards the door. I felt around for the handle and found it around the small of my back.

The door was bigger than it looked from across the room, the lion should of been able to get out with me. I pulled the handle and pulled the door open. I stood aside while the lion ran out of the basement and up the stairs, his feet didn't even make a sound.

"What have I done?" I asked myself.

I wasn't really talking about the lion that I just let on the loose in downtown La Grande. I was thinking about my friends. Would they even take me back? Would they ever trust me again? I didn't get my hopes up. But I still had to save them, whether they liked it or not.

I climbed the stairs and found myself in the room with all of the tac-gear. The first thing I looked for was my plate carrier and my guns, nothing. The next thing I looked for was something that I could use for a sling for my mangled arm. I couldn't find anything so I picked up a pocket knife and opened the blade with my left hand.

I reached under my BDU top and put the point of the blade in the armpit of the shirt. I pushed and the blade punctured the material and I drug the tool down the side of the shirt. I replaced the blade in the armpit and drug the blade down the inside of the sleeve. I put the knife down and pulled the shirt off of my body.

I walked over to a table and sat in the chair next to it. I laid my broken arm on the table, I tried to lay it down as gently as I could to avoid even more pain than I already was in. I took the body of the shirt under my elbow. I ran the cut open sleeve around my broken arm. I held the cuff in my right hand as tight as I could and wrapped the shirt across my back and over my shoulder. I wrapped the other sleeve around my wrist and tied it so that the broken arm was held up against my chest.

I looked around the room to try to find something to help me hide my identity. There was a leftover juggernaut suit hanging on some heavy duty hooks. I pulled the boots out and pulled the back flaps from the front. I slipped my boots into them and closed each flap. I grabbed the knee/thigh pads and put them on to. I had worn a juggernaut suit before and I didn't like it. They were always big and heavy and drastically reduced your mobility. It took me about twice as much time than it should of since I only had one hand to use. I was all dressed up ready to move out.

Before I left, I picked up a fixed bladed knife that I knew well, a Gerber Prodigy. It had a black plastic handle and only had a five inch blade but it was going to have to do. I threaded it onto the juggernaut suit's belt and headed out to the stairs.

I cruised of all of the floors, nodding and waving to anyone that was there. I just played like I was supposed to be there and nobody gave me any trouble.

I poked my head inside of one room and found my kit. I slung my M16 over my shoulder and grabbed the plate carrier by the drag handle on the upper back and carried it up the remaining floors searching every one for my friends. It wasn't until I reached the sixth floor that I really made some progress. The floors had been cleaned of all the bodies and blood. They even took the bloodstain off the wall by the stairs.

There was a single guard posted outside the last door on the right. I walked up next to him and set my plate carrier down. I pulled the Gerber out of the sheath.

He started to say something but I cut him short with the knife in his throat. I pulled the knife out and he fell to my feet. I stood back from the door like I had on the roof just a few hours ago. Only this time I didn't have my shotgun in my hands. I kicked the door open to see Brandon with a couple of BDU tops tied together in some kind of makeshift lasso. David was in the cage with him. Brittany and Mathew were in an identical cage right next to it.

"I thought I killed you already!" Brandon yelled at me still hanging out of the bars.

"I'm glad you didn't," I said as I walked in the room and took off the helmet exposing who I was.

"It's Big Luke!" said Mathew excitedly.

"Yeah. Look, guys I'm sorry for what I did. They didn't hurt you did they?" I asked taking the keys from the dead guards belt.

"No. We're fine," said David.

Brandon pulled himself from the bars and waited by the door of his cage. I got it unlocked it and the first thing he did was punch me across the jaw. I stumbled a little bit and I almost hit him back but I realized that I probably deserved it.

"Don't you ever betray us like that again!" he yelled.

"I won't. Like I said, I'm sorry. There has to be a way I can make it up to you," I told him.

"You can start by getting us out of here and back at camp. Then you can tell Chiron what you are," said David.

"I'll tell him what _was_, I'm not helping Luke anymore. He tried to feed me to a lion, it almost worked. I somehow cut a deal with the lion to let him free and he wouldn't eat me. I walked away from it with a broken arm though. Before that he had his minions knock me out shortly after, well, what happened on the fourth floor," I tried to avoid the "turned" term. "He also told me that my step-dad's been working for him the whole time."

"Wow, that sucks," said Brittany.

"Yeah. I'm not really surprised," I replied.

I walked over to Brittany and opened her cage. The first thing she did was lay a big, fat kiss on me. I moaned because she squished my broken arm through the armor. When she finally pulled away she slapped my across the face, hard.

"The kiss was for saving us. The slap was for leaving in the first place."

I said something real intelligent like: "Duh, huh?"

I shook out of it and started taking off the juggernaut suit. I was only in it for fifteen, twenty minutes but it was hot inside the suit. Brandon and David put their gear back on. David kissed his MP7, I guess he missed it.

I stepped out of the room and picked up my plate carrier. The blood that got on it had dried. I walked back into the room to see Brandon with his MP5 pointed at my face.

"Brandon, what is this about? I'm back."

"As far as I'm concerned, you were never with us," he said coldly.

Lucky for me, David and Brittany didn't totally hate my guts.

"Brandon, come on. He said he was sorry."

"Does that offer still stand?" asked Brandon who was still pointing the MP5 at me.

"Which one?" I asked as he pulled the slack out of his trigger. _Wrong Question._

"The one where you take me hunting. Like my dad never did," he said.

"Yeah, it still stands. I never lied to you about that," I told him.

"OK, you heard him. Now, put the gun down," said Brittany, laying on the Charmspeak.

Brandon pulled the slack out of the trigger but the muzzle was still pointed at my face. I could see the copper-jacked round in the breech. I was stiff as a board. I had my left hand in the air and I had dropped the plate carrier. I wasn't scared of dieing, I was scared for Brandon. I messed with his head and now I was paying for it.

"Brandon, please put the gun down," Brittany grabbed his arm and spoke right into his ear.

Brandon sighed and dropped his muzzle. I sighed and dropped my hand.

"Now was that so hard?" asked Brittany.

We both just kind of mumbled and went back to doing our thing. I asked Brittany to help me redo the shoulder strap over my sling. It turned out to be more work than it was worth.

"No, you need to open that and pull it out. Then you can open the strap," I told her pointing to the different pieces of the strap.

"What? This piece?" she said grabbing at the pull chord on the front of the vest that was supposed to make it fall apart so a medic could treat your wounds. All of my wounds were already treated, I didn't need the vest to fall apart.

"No, up here on the shoulder pad. That opens up, then pull it out," I pointed at the shoulder pad on the strap.

She finally understood and started taking off the shoulder pad. Then she separated the strap itself and went to the other side and repeated the process. Then she threaded the straps under the sling so my broken arm hung on the outside of the rig. I smiled and she smiled back.

I reached around to my first-aid pack on my back and pulled out some ambrosia and took a bite. I tasted nothing, must be the gods taking a shot at me for aiding the enemy. I was just thankful that they didn't kill me where I stood. Bitter gods' food over death, I'm always willing to make that trade.

"So, how are we getting out of here?" asked David, Brandon still wasn't talking to me.

"We need to get to the truck. I don't know if I can repel with only one arm. We are going to have to fight our way out. Hey, Brittany, could you hand me that knife, please?" I said pointing to the Gerber that I left on the table. I had stabbed it hard into the wood top and the blood had dripped off onto the table.

She pulled it out and handed it to me with two fingers. She was afraid of the blood. I took it and turned it backwards in my hand. David took point out the door and I followed. Brittany and Mathew were behind me and Brandon covered our six. I wasn't super comfortable with Brandon behind me after what happened in the room, but I really didn't have a choice in the matter.


	18. Chapter 18

Brandon

Was I happy that Big Luke was back? Not really. He turned on us, and that is what stuck. _Big Luke was smart, why would he do something that was so stupid?_ But I couldn't think about that at the moment since we had met opposition on the stairs.

It was one guy walking up, probably coming to check on us. We were stacked up behind the wall at the top of the stairs. David was out in front when Big Luke tapped his shoulder. He had the knife and was waiting to the left of the entryway of the staircase. He held the knife backwards in his left hand. When the guy made it to the top of the stairs, Big Luke stabbed him in the neck. He blocked a lot of it with his torso as he pulled the body into a room. He closed the door on the way out.

David took point down the stairs. The next couple floors were mostly clear. It wasn't until we hit the third floor that things really got hairy. The two guys with AK's were standing by a cubicle, Luke Castellan was sitting in an office chair. They didn't see us as we moved in. We took cover behind a cubicle. We could hear the three of them talking, something sports related.

"How do you want to do this?" I asked Big Luke.

"I'd like to kill them all," he whispered.

"One handed? That's suicide!" said David.

"Can we sneak around?" asked Mathew.

"Um, guys? I think they made our decision for us," said Brittany.

One of the guys with an AK came around the corner and David put four rounds in his chest. He fell over and the other came around the other side of the cubicle. Big Luke saw him and charged him. The guy with the AK got a round off and it hit me in the chest. I elected to use rifle plates so my armor stopped the round. That's not to say that it didn't knock the wind out of me.

Big Luke was brutal with the guy after he saw me get hit. He stuck the knife in the guys forearm and he dropped his AK. Then he kicked the guy in the nuts. Big Luke grabbed the guys head and forced it into his knee, nose first. He kicked the guy over and as he fell, Big Luke pulled the knife out of the guys arm. Big Luke went down on top of him and put the knife in the guys forehead. Two down, one to go.

"Don't look, Mathew," Brittany told her brother as she held him close.

"Well, well. I see you escaped the beast," said Castellan.

"I told you, you should have killed me yourself. Now you have no body guards to hide behind. Now you have no choice," Big Luke told him.

David's words rang in my head: _He doesn't care, he'll take you on, no matter what. _It was true in every sense. Part of it was his arrogance, the rest was his ability to go through with it, win or lose.

"Your at a serious disadvantage, with one arm," said Castellan pointing to Big Luke's slung up arm.

"See that?" Big Luke pointed at the body of the guy he stabbed. "I brought a knife to a gun fight... and won. What do you think I can do to some fuck-tard in a sports coat with a giant toothpick?"

Castellan took off his sports coat and rolled up the sleeves on his shirt. He drew his sword, the infamous Backbiter. He held it out in front of him with the point towards Big Luke, two handed. David and I raised our weapons but Big Luke waved us off. This was his fight, and only his. Luke Castellan betrayed him, and he didn't like that much. Big Luke reached around for his knife. He pulled it out and held it up.

"And your calling my sword a _toothpick_?" asked Luke.

"Damn straight," Big Luke replied.

"Any last words?" asked Castellan.

"Yeah. Let's rock," said Big Luke.

Luke charged the big guy, going for a stab. Big Luke jumped to the right, using his knife to push Castellan's blade away. He used his foot and swiped Castellan's feet out from under him. Castellan fell on his back and Big Luke tried to stab him but he rolled away. He stood up and tried to cut Big Luke in half but he hit the deck and the four-foot blade went right over him. Big Luke stood up and tackled Castellan with his left shoulder. Backbiter flew from Castellan's hands and the wind was knocked out of him.

Big Luke was straddling Castellan and was about to deliver the final strike when something outside the window caught his attention. The sound of rotor blades. We looked out the window to see an Apache helicopter with machine guns on both sides. It was black and facing us directly. The machine guns opened fire and Big Luke got out of the way.

"We need to go, now!" He screamed as he directed us to the stairs.

He didn't have to tell us twice. We all sprinted for the staircase. We didn't stop running until we made it to the first floor where we were out of the Apache's reign. There was at least ten or fifteen guys coming in through the front doors. They were carrying weapons of all kinds. Sub-machine guns to belt-fed machine guns. We took cover behind the front desk. By a miracle, they didn't see us come in.

"What do you want to do?" Big Luke asked me.

"How much ordnance do we have?" I asked back.

"I've still got one smoke," Big Luke replied.

"I've got a flashbang and a smoke," said David.

"Give 'em everything," I commanded.

We thew out everything we had, three smoke grenades and two flashbangs. Instantly the room lit up with noise and smoke. After the flashbangs went off there was another noise, the sound of a lion's roar.

"ROOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!" screamed the lion as he began attacking the mercenaries.

Big Luke grabbed Brittany's hand who grabbed Mathew's. David took point and I held up the rear, trying to stay out if the lion's way as we made our way out of the building. Brittany, Mathew, David and I were all coughing up the smoke and Big Luke just moved through it like it was no big deal to him.

We almost got hit by a car as we jaywalked across the street to the building where our truck was stashed. We could see the enemy's desert tan Humvees outside of the building. When we made it to the truck, Big Luke instantly moved for the driver's seat as he fished out the keys. Even with the use of only one hand, he could probably drive better than any of us.

He finally got them out and pressed the unlock button on the fob. The horn honked and the doors unlocked. He pulled the door open.

"Brittany, I need you to sit in the middle," Big Luke instructed and she climbed in.

David and I got in the back and Mathew sat in the shotgun seat. I slid the sliding glass window in the back open in case we needed to shoot from it. Big Luke handed Brittany the keys and she slipped them into the ignition and started the engine.

Big Luke held down the column lever and she brought it down into position then she put the truck in reverse. Big Luke floored the accelerator and we backed out of the alley. Big was driving one handed like he always did as we turned the corner. We popped out of the alley and pulled alongside of the Humvees. Several merc's were getting in them. Brittany put the truck in drive and Big Luke put his left foot on the brake and pushed it to the floor.

"What are you doing? We need to leave," I told him.

"This truck has limited traction out back. I need to heat up the tires to help us out," He replied the slowly applied pressure to the gas.

The back tired began to spin on the pavement and tire smoke lifted around our F-150. I could smell it leaking into the cabin as I watched the tachometer begin to rise.

The Apache had come out from behind the building and hovered at the end of the street. We sat there spinning the tires just long enough to hear the first Humvee start it's engine.

Big Luke took his foot off the brake and the back wheels still spun for a few yards before they finally hooked up. I looked back and saw two long strips of burnt rubber left on the pavement as I felt the truck swing to the left under the Apache. Big Luke was right, the back wheels did not have a lot of traction, so the back end swung out when ever we went around a corner at speed.

We weaved in and out of mid morning traffic as the mercenaries were right on our tails. One of the Humvees had a M2 mounted to the roof. A guy climbed through the hole and readied the .50 caliber machine gun.

"Big Luke? You need to get us out of here, quick. They have a really big machine gun," I said.

"I'm trying," he replied.

We cut through an alley and lost the Humvees, but the Apache was still hovering above us. Big Luke jumped the truck onto one of the lawns of the university. Grass and dirt flew as the wheels grabbed at it. We needed to take out the helicopter some how and I had an Idea.

"David, pull your rope and climbing harness out," I told him.

"Why?" he asked.

"I have an idea, and it involves you, me, our climbing harnesses and a rope," I said pulling out my climbing harness.

"OK, give me a sec."

Meanwhile, Big Luke took us through another two alleys that were separated by a one-way street, but was cut short by the Humvees parked at the end. Big Luke slammed on the brakes and Brittany shoved the lever into Reverse.

"When I say 'now', put it in Drive," he told her.

"What are you going to do?" she asked.

"I'm going to Rockford it," he said, I didn't know what a Rockford was, but I was about to find out.

Big Luke turned around in the seat and punched the accelerator. I could see the Humvees driving into the alley by the grill of the F-150. We got to about forty or fifty when we exited the alley onto the street. Big Luke slammed hard on the break and we felt the weight of the vehicle shift to the rear axle. He turned the wheel hard to the right and the truck spun to the left. We almost hit 140 degrees when Big Luke calmly said:

"Now"

Brittany shoved the pickup into Drive. Big Luke let up off the brake with his left foot and floored the accelerator. The right, front headlight almost hit the wall as we straightened out in the alley which was barely wide enough for the truck.

That's when the car sickness hit me, I was doing so well until then. Big Luke looked in the rear view mirror and probably saw that I was starting to turn green.

"Brandon, what was that plan you had? Focus on that, not so much the ride," he said.

David had put on his harness and was watching Big Luke drive. I put mine on as fast as I could and grabbed the end of David's rope. The tip that Big Luke gave me was working pretty well.

"Tie this to your harness, real short," I instructed. "Big Luke, get us on the freeway and hold her straight and steady."

"You got it, Hoss," he said as he turned for the freeway.

I had tied the rope a bit long so both of us could hang out the side of the truck. We would stand on the running boards and shoot at the Apache, hopefully knocking it out of the sky. I explained the plan to David and he seemed to understand.

"Your crazy, you know that right?" he said.

"It's kept me from going insane," I told him. He chuckled as he scooted over to the door.

I did the same as we hit the on-ramp to the freeway. The speedometer jump up to around ninety but the Apache could keep up no problem.

I counted to three and we opened the doors. I stepped on to the running boards of the truck and I could see David's head on the other side. We weighed about the same; I probably weighed a little more but David put his right arm against the roof of the truck to compensate for the difference.

We leaned on the rope and pulled it tight. It was hard to see with the wind in my eyes. David had longer hair then me so it blew around in the wind.

The Apache opened fire and Big Luke had to swerve to the left and David almost fell off the running board. I caught the edge of the roof to keep him from falling. He put his elbow back and raised his MP7.

I folded the stock on my MP5 and pointed it at the helicopter, one handed. We opened fire and the rounds started to penetrate the thin sheet metal on the Apache. A couple rounds bounced into the jet engines on the tail section. Smoke began to blow out of the aircraft as it went down. The Apache crashed onto one of the Humvees. Luckily it was the one with the .50 cal.

I ran out of ammo in my MP5 so I let the sling catch it as I went for my M9. I pulled it out of my holster and took it off safety. I pointed it at the other Humvee's grill. David reloaded his MP7 and did the same. We opened fire aiming for the Humvee's radiator.

The first pull on the trigger of my M9 was long since the trigger had to pull back the hammer for the gun to fire. After that, the slide pushed the hammer down before each shot.

Radiator fluid started to leak from the Humvee and steam rose out of the engine compartment due to overheating. The Humvee stalled and we left it in the dust on our way back East. We got back in the truck and the first thing out of Mathew's mouth was:

"That was so cool!"

David and I just looked at each other and laughed. That was probably the craziest thing I've ever done. I wasn't sure how to add this mission to my count of near death experiences. Should I add the whole thing because I felt like I was going to die the whole time pretty much. Or do I add each time it really got close, like the round I took in my plate or hanging out the side of a pickup, shooting at a helicopter and a couple of Humvees. I wasn't sure but I was going to figure it out by the time we got to camp. I looked at the speedometer and it said that we were traveling around one-hundred, ten miles per hour.

"Yo, you can slow down now," I said.

"Holy crap, I didn't even notice that," said Big Luke as he pushed easily on the brakes.

After moving at a hundred, ten, sixty felt like a crawl. We drove East for a few miles when Brittany's cell phone rang. Instantly, David, Big Luke and I panicked. It was like sending up a flare to every monster in the area. She answered the phone.

"Hello?" she said, calmly. There was a slight pause. "Someone wants to talk to a Corporal Jon Luke Richards?"

"OK. May I borrow your hand?" Big Luke asked and she held the phone up to his ear.

"This is Jon Luke speaking," said Big Luke. "Oh, hey. How you doin'?" another short pause. "Some guy who called himself Hephaestus told you that your schedule cleared up and to call this number and ask for me? That's a pretty crazy story, brother," another long break. "Your damn right we could use a lift. How fast can you make it to Eastern Oregon?" another pause. "OK, we will see you in about a half hour or so. Thanks brother."

"Who was that?" asked David.

"A friend of mine. He's retired from being a pilot. He made a bunch of money and bought himself a C-130 for old times sake. He's going to give us a lift."

"Where are we stopping?" I asked.

"Oh, we aren't. He'll touch down on the road and we'll drive right up the ramp," he said.

"That is wicked!" exclaimed Mathew.

We drove the half an hour when we heard this strange hum that came from behind us. That hum later became a buzz as the jet black C-130 flew over the top of us. The pilot dropped the landing gear and put the plane on the four lane highway. Big Luke swerved over to the center line and matched speeds with the C-130. When he saw the ramp on the back of the plane drop, he punched the accelerator and the truck started to move closer to the ramp. The front tires hit the ramp and the rear came short after. He stopped the truck and we got out. The plane accelerated for take off. We were in the air and heading for the East Coast.


	19. Chapter 19

**_Author's Note: This is the final chapter to _When Simplicity is Lost, _my fist book length fan-fic. Those of you have read it all the way through, consider writing a review of it. There will definitely be a sequel called _When Someone Gets Hurt. _Things are shaken up for the Strike Team when they have to join forces with another team to accomplish the same objective. You will also discover what Big Luke's "Secret Project" is._**

**_Anyway, thanks again for reading and I hope to read your feedback on the next one! Peace out!_**

* * *

Big Luke

We landed in New York's JFK airport and I drove the truck off the C-130's ramp. Brittany had helped me switch out my makeshift sling for a sling made from triangles from my first-aid kit. I tossed my cut up combat shirt in a trashcan before we left. I didn't think I would need it anymore, not just because it was torn in half, but because I was going to have to tell Chiron what I had done. Assuming he didn't kill me for treason, I would have to leave camp for sure, never to return.

I would make it my mission to cripple Kronos' army, starting with my former step-dad and his son. They turned my life upside down, but not all at once. Kronos broke me down morally when he made me steal to fund his war. Then they made me an offer I couldn't refuse, they told me they could bring my mom back. Somewhere along the line I knew that my mom was never coming back, but I betrayed my friends anyway.

I felt like crap, Brandon said that I needed to tell Chiron what I was, and I was going to do it. For better or worse, no matter what happened to me.

It was late at night and I said goodbye to my buddy who flew us home.

"Have fun enjoying the good life," I told him.

"Ditto. Stay frosty Marine," he replied and we shook hands to go our separate ways.

We drove the truck all the way out of town down the farm road that ran by camp. The high-beams of the truck lead the way through the curves as I drove. I enjoy driving at night, it brings me back to the swamp. Of course we were no where near Louisiana, the dark and eeriness of the night reminded me of my life before I joined the Corps.

We stashed the truck on the side of the road a few miles from Half-Blood Hill and walked a little ways and hid in some bushes so we could see the truck. We had packed up our gear and I had the bag slung over my shoulder. Brittany pulled out her cell phone and called the police.

"Hi, I just saw a bunch of teenagers stash a Ford F-150 in the woods. I just thought it was kind of weird that it had Oregon plates," she told them.

She told them the road and hung up. We continued down the road and snuck into camp through the woods next to camp. Going through camp would have been too dangerous. We got to the Kill House and I dug out my keys. Ever since the Great Ursa incident, I put a lock on the door. It probably wasn't going to stop another bear attack but I think it was a step in the right direction.

I was new to door locks, back home I never needed one. The motto that we had down south was "our house is protected by the good lord and a gun. If you come around here unwelcome, your going to meet 'em both, Son". I had a little trouble with the lock and Brittany had to help. I said something real clever like:

"I've only got one arm!"

She just looked at me like I was from another planet and walked inside. I held the door open for everyone to walk inside. Brandon was the last one, I stopped him short and closed the door, I needed a word with him before we went in.

"Look, I'm sorry. I'll tell Chiron tomorrow and then you'll probably never hear from me again," I told him.

"You know what? You tell Chiron and we are square. Don't worry about it," he said halfheartedly, I got the feeling that he was still mad at me.

I opened the door and let Brandon inside. We had a few cots in the Kill House to sleep on but not enough for all five of us. So, I volunteered to sleep on the cold concrete floor, since I was the reason for our troubles. Nobody else protested. Everybody else slept on the first floor and I slept on the platform up stairs. My dream that night was exactly what I was expecting.

I was on the _Princess Andromeda. _The last place I wanted to be. I was in the room with Kronos' casket with Luke Castellan and the two people I've hated my entire life. My step-dad, John, and his son, Kyle.

My step-dad hadn't changed at all. He still had his salt and pepper hair, his thin frame and his evil grin. I was a lot bigger than him but he could fight. I had experienced that several times over the years. He was wearing straight black BDU's and had a Colt Python strapped to his leg. He wasn't wearing a plate carrier but he had creases on his uniform like he had just taken one off. He was leaning up against a desk next to his son.

Kyle had gotten bigger and stronger than he was a few years ago. His broad shoulders lifted on his shirt. He was dressed like his dad only he was still wearing his black plate carrier and Kevlar helmet. He had brown hair and a lateral scar on his cheek and another on the side of his neck. He was standing in front of the desk with his arms crossed, his jet-black FN Herstal SCAR-L was hanging by his side.

"You should have just left," Castellan told me. "Those guys don't mean anything to you."

"That's where you're wrong, Castellan. Right now, they are the only friends I got," I said.

"You know Chiron's going to kill you right?" he returned.

"You better hope he does. Because if by some miracle he leaves me alive, I'm going to make it my life's mission to kill you all," I said.

"You know you can't kill me. You never could, and you never will," said John in a calm voice.

"I'm not the same man I used to be. And believe me, I'll kill you."

"Or die trying," said Kyle.

"You know, we could work something out. You helped me and now I can help you," offered Luke Castellan.

"No way. I'm done with your offers. You have nothing I need beside those two. And I can find them on my own," I returned.

I woke up still on the floor. I stood up and looked over the edge, everyone was still sleeping on the fold-able cots. I opened up the gear bag and pulled out all of my gear. I looked around the room to make sure I didn't forget anything. I didn't and left for Cabin 9.

It was about five or five, thirty in the morning and everyone was asleep. By now Percy Jackson was back from the Sea of Monsters and so was Chiron. I crept into Cabin 9 and headed over to my rack. I found another gear bag that was smaller but didn't pack up as small as the one we were using. I put all of my stuff in it excluding my M16 and 1911 which went in a separate gun bag. I saw my dress blues sitting neatly folded on my bed. I decided to change into the uniform. If I was going to go out, I was going to do it in style.

It felt good to finally change out of my combat boots and into the dress shoes. The simplicity and normality of them made it slightly heartwarming.

I walked out of Cabin 9 and headed for the Big House. I opened the door and snuck in down the hall to Chiron's apartment. I knocked three times and waited for Chiron to open the door. He stood there in full centaur form rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Jon Luke, your back," he said. "How was the return?"

"We made it back, all persons accounted for, Sir. But that's not what I'm here to talk to you about. May I come in?" I asked, trying to sound as polite as possible.

"Yes you may," he said and I set down my gear and guns and walked in. "What can I help you with?"

"Actually, I'm here to make a confession, Sir," I told him.

"Would you like to have a seat?" he offered.

"No, thank you. I'll stand," I replied.

"OK, so what do you need to tell me?"

"I came to camp a short year ago," I started. "The whole 'Greek Gods are real' thing became a belief of mine. Shortly after Luke Castellan betrayed us, he talked to me about my mom," Chiron sighed but didn't say anything. I think he knew what I was going to say. "He said that he could show me where my step-dad and step-brother were if I joined his army and helped him rob banks to fund the war. I joined the Marine Corps to get away from that side of my life and to get trained so I could kill them myself for killing my mom. Eye-for-an-eye kind of deal," I had noticed that I had taken off my hat and was spinning it in my hand. I put it back on my head and placed my hand at my side. "I helped him and joined Kronos' army, I gave him information on the camp. While we were on this operation, Luke came to me in a dream, he thought I wasn't loyal to Kronos," I kinda smiled to myself, thinking about how stupid I was to take his bait. "He said that I needed to bring Brandon and David to him, and he would bring my mom back. He took the two demigods that we were supposed to save right out from under our noses as bait. We found the building they were hiding in and infiltrated it. I wasn't happy about turning on my friends. Luke tried to feed me to a lion but I got away. That's where I got this broken arm. I went back up through the building and broke my friends out of their cages. Then we escaped. My father cleared up one of my old pilot buddy's schedule and he flew us here," I paused for a second, choosing my next words carefully. "I don't want to die, not with my unfinished business. On the other hand, I know that you would probably like to kill me for treason-"

"I don't want to do that. I think that you made a grave mistake. I also think that you did your best to make it right," he said.

"You think so?" I asked.

"Yes."

"So, am I expelled from camp at least?"

"No, I think that you can stay. Continue to train the children how to fight. Many of your students have learned a great deal from you. I also think, if your team is willing to take you back, you can continue to lead operations for me," he said.

This took me off guard. I walked into this building not expecting to make it out alive. Now, if I can make it up to my friends, I can have the good life again. No more sneaking out of camp to go rob banks or give the enemy inside information.

"Are you sure? What makes you trust me?" I asked.

"I don't trust you. But I am willing to let you prove to me that you are no longer under Kronos' spell," he replied.

That made me feel a whole lot better (not). I did understand what Chiron was saying, though. I also knew that I would have no problem making this deal work. Kronos or Luke was not going to trick me or tempt me anymore. I was my own man and I was going to start living my life that way.

"You know what, Chiron? I will prove it to you that you can trust me. I'm done with Castellan and his games. You'll see. Thank you very much for letting me wake you up this early," I told him and I extended my hand.

Chiron shook it and I left the room and the Big House. I headed back for Cabin 9 to change back into my regular camp cloths. I crept into the room and changed. I put my old, scuffed tan combat boots and my desert MARPAT pants. It was difficult to get dressed with the broken arm. One of my half-brothers woke up and saw that I was home.

"Where have you been?" he asked groggily.

"Huh? Oh, military conference," I lied.

Great, trying to gain Chiron's trust and the first thing I do is lie to someone. I had to lie though, if I told people about the Strike Team, that would be just as bad.

"How did you break your arm?" he asked.

"Got in a fight," I said, not really a lie. I did get in a fight with a lion.

"Looks like you lost."

"You should see the other guy," I told him.

He bought it and I left with my 1911 strapped to my leg. I was back in the saddle again as I headed for the Kill House before breakfast. Everyone should have been up and out by then and I would be alone to work on a couple projects I had. I had dug out under the Kill House where I built my own private shop. I was never good at working in a shop with a bunch of other people.

I walked over to the door to the walls and opened it. I looked around and found no sign of my friends. I left the walls and moved under the stairs. I grabbed the rope that was attached to the trapdoor and lifted it up. I walked down the steps and pulled the pull-chord that turned every florescent light in the shop. The room lit up, one row of lights at a time. I pulled the cover on my baby, I wont tell you what it is yet, but let me tell you, she's a beauty.

I was working on a M61 Vulcan minigun, one of four, when I heard footsteps coming down the stairs. I reached around to my Ka-Bar and pulled the bayonet out of the sheath.

I took cover behind the body of the project and held the tip of the blade in my left hand, ready to throw the knife into whoever or whatever was coming down the steps. I saw the feet coming down and I cocked my arm back. I waited until the face just came into view when I threw the knife. The blade stuck into the wall right in front of Brandon's nose. For once I was glad to have terrible aim with my left hand.

"Dude!" he yelped.

"Oops, sorry about that," I said.

"You could have killed me!" he said as he yanked the blade from the wall.

"I thought you were someone else!" I said.

"OK, whatever. What is this place?" he asked

"It's my workshop. I got tired of working in the shop at camp. So, I built my own under our Kill House to get away from it all. I store all my projects in here."

"What's this one?" he asked pointing to the body of my project.

"I can't tell you until it's done," I told him.

"Well, don't you know what it is? It looks like the body of a-"

"Don't say it, it might not even look like this when it's finished," I told him.

"What are you going to do? Paint it orange?" he asked.

"You'll see when it's finished," I told him with a grin on my face.

"So, what happens now? We saw your note. You thought Chiron was going to kill you for treason?" he asked.

"Wouldn't you?" I returned.

"Believe it or not, I thought about it. You certainly gave me the chance," he replied.

Then I realized that I did. He followed me out of the six floor. And I let him do it with a loaded gun in his hands that he previously had pointed at my face. It must have been subconscious guilt that made me do it.

"I'll admit, not my smartest moment," I said.

"Like joining Luke's army in the first place?" he suggested.

"Look, I said I was sorry. I made a mistake and ended up dragging you guys into it. I was wrong; I wasn't thinking clearly. Do you think you'll ever be able to trust me again? Chiron says I'm not leaving camp except to lead missions for him. Assuming you and David take me back," I said.

Brandon paused for a minute. He couldn't meet my eyes. He had changed out of his BDU and got a clean Camp Half-Blood T-shirt and khaki cargo shorts. He was wearing his normal pair of running shoes and a "livestrong" yellow wristband. He looked around the shop at everything I had laying around. Weapons half-dissembled, tools laying around and dust on the floor.

I didn't keep my shop like the camp kept theirs. That's one of the reasons I moved out. They also monitored safety way too much. Overkill that even I was not fond of. My fellow cabin mates strictly used each tool for that one intended purpose. I have a different theory, if a tool is good for more than one task, you should use it for more than that one task. Brandon finally came up with a answer.

"I'll let you lead us on more operations. But if you turn on us again, and I won't hesitate to shoot you," he threatened

"You know, when I did turn on you, I half-hoped that you would," I told him.

"You felt that bad huh?"

"Damn straight."

We heard the door up stairs open and slam closed. Brandon and I hid under the stairs. Brandon held my knife in his hand. The perpetrator moved down the stairs without caution.

"Hello? Guys?" I heard Brittany's voice say.

I stepped out from under the stairway with a subtle "Sup?"

"Holy sh-. You scared the crap out of me," she yelped.

"Sorry," said Brandon. "What can we help you with?"

She ignored him and turned her attention to me. Apparently, she was still somehow suffering from hero syndrome because she tackled me in a bear hug. I winced since my arm was still broken and I was still in much pain.

"He didn't kill you!" she exclaimed.

"Nope, still here. Still have a broken arm," I said trying to hold back tears from the pain.

"Oh, sorry," she said and she let go.

This reminded me that we needed to get her and her brother settled in the Aphrodite cabin. I tried to think of a way to do it, but I was drawing a blank on anything creative.

"We need to get you and your little bro settled into the Aphrodite cabin," I said. "Where's Mathew?"

"He's watching a movie in the Big House. Why don't you just guys just walk me in and introduce me to my, uh, half-siblings?" she suggested.

Brandon just looked at me like _Go for it, dude!_

"Fine I'll take you to your cabin," I offered and she drug me out of the Kill House.

We walked and talked. She told me about her life and her family. Her likes and dislikes. She seemed to have warmed up to the whole Greek god thing and was still very much interested in me. She didn't really try to hide it much. She put her arm through mine as we walked and I tried not to make it too weird. The conversation moved from her to me.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" she asked.

"Nope, I never felt that I would be that great of a boyfriend. Hephaestus was never good with people," I replied and I felt my holster get real hot, a gift from the God of the Forge himself, probably.

"Hm," she said, pondering her next words. "You ever wanted to try it?"

We were getting close to the cabins now. I didn't know what to say. I had never been asked out or what ever it was that she was asking.

Luckily my feet saved me. We had made it to the Aphrodite cabin. I knocked and the door opened. On the other side, I found several daughters and a few sons of Aphrodite. The cabin reeked of perfume and make up. Silena Beauregard, Cabin 10 head counselor, greeted us at the door.

"Hi, how can I help you?" she asked.

"This is Brittany Hughes, her younger brother is watching the introduction video in the Big House right now. They have already been claimed by Aphrodite. They need a place to stay, do you have anymore racks?" I asked.

"No?" she said like she didn't know what I was saying. "We have a few extra bunks though."

Silena Beauregard didn't know that I always called bunks, racks. It was kind of my thing.

"OK, great," I said. "Brittany this is Silena Beauregard, head counselor for Cabin 10. She will get you and Mathew set up."

Before I could leave, Silena Beauregard stopped me.

"Where were you?" she asked.

"Military conference," I answered.

"No, you weren't!" exclaimed Brittany.

I panicked but I stuck to my story.

"Yes I was. But I picked you and your brother up while I was out," I said.

"Then how did you get the broken arm?" asked Silena.

"Got in a fight," I said.

"Looks like you lost," she said.

"You should see the other guy," I told her.

I left them there and went to breakfast. After that, I went to the arena to get ready to teach my class.

We pent the next few weeks like any other. I continued to teach my hand-to-hand combat class. Teaching everybody how to fight with only one arm, a skill that they just might need at some point. Brandon continued to participate and David continued to school everyone at the archery range.

One day after lunch, Chiron told me that he had a operation for us. He gave me a few details and a location. Then he told me that I should talk to my team and see if they would come back for round two. I asked each one and neither of them committed to being at the meeting that night after campfire.

My arm was healing up well and I was able to use my rifle again, which I was pretty happy for.

I headed out early from campfire and made my way to the Big House. I took a seat on one of the couches that sat by the stuffed leopard head that hung over the mantel. The leopard snarled at me.

"Who you talking to?" I told it.

He just growled at me and left me alone.

A few minutes of waiting around really got to me. I was never a patient person and I was starting to regret my decision to leave campfire early. Finally, Chiron clopped into the room and compacted himself in his magic wheelchair. He tossed a manilla folder filled with a few sheets of paper on the coffee table. We heard the door open and close and I looked up.

The rest of my team came into the room. Brandon and David took a seat on the couch and I just smiled. They took me back.


	20. Author's Note

_**Author's Note:**__** Well, i'd like to thank everybody for reading my story (Still awaiting some feedback though). Be sure to check out the sequel "When Someone Gets Hurt" that is now posted! Thanks again, everybody!**_


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